What is meant by nuclear waste? State the main hazard of this waste on the living beings. How is this waste disposed off?
Answers
Answer:Nuclear power is the energy contained in atoms, which can be harnessed to generate electricity through a series of chemical reactions that occur in a nuclear reactor
1] High-level waste is produced as part of the nuclear fuel process and needs to be considered in order to avoid permanent damage to living organisms and the environment. [2] These dangerous byproducts remain intensely radioactive for a long time. For example, Pu-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years, Tc-99 has a half-life of 220,000 years, and I-129 has a half-life of 15.7 million years. [3] As a result of the hazards that long-lived radioactive waste poses to society, disposal regulations require isolation of these wastes for tens of thousands of years. [3] How to keep this radioactive waste in storage is another issue that must be taken into account when considering nuclear energy use.
Temporary storage solutions include onsite storage pools at reactor sites, where spent nuclear fuel is stored and cooled, and dry casks, which have an average storage time of 8-12 years. [3] However, neither dry casks nor storage pools are sustainable techniques for waste disposal in the long term. [3] Long-term storage solutions include burial in the sub seabed and launching waste into outer space, but perhaps the safest solution is geological isolation.