# Storage of nuclear waste ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/storage-of-nuclear-waste/529377 "2010-02-17T19:17:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/storage-of-nuclear-waste/529377/1 "2010-02-17T19:17:44Z")
Does all the nuclear waste generated in the U. S. go to one location? Nevada? France must generate quite a bit. Where does their’s go? What about Russia? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/storage-of-nuclear-waste/529377/2 "2010-02-17T19:32:14Z")
Currently, nuclear waste is stored (if my google skills are accurate) in 131 different locations spread across 39 states. The plan is that eventually all of it will be stored in Yucca Mountain in Nevada starting around the year 2017. The original deadline was 1998 so don’t put too much faith in that date. This site has information about France’s nuclear waste programs: [http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0411.shtml](http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0411.shtml) France also supposedly ships a lot of nuclear waste to Russia, but this is all “secret” so that there won’t be any debate about it, according to Greenpeace. Here’s an article about it: [http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31466](http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31466) Russia keeps most of their nuclear waste on site at the plants that generate it, but they are currently studying doing something similar to a central site like Yucca Mountain. ---
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/storage-of-nuclear-waste/529377/3 "2010-02-17T20:45:48Z")
Interesting. Might you (or anyone else) know how much waste (by volume and/or weight) is created over a specific period of time by one reactor? How much is created by nuclear-powered ships, such as an aircraft carrier? Just trying to get a handle on how much of a challenge is the storage of this waste. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/storage-of-nuclear-waste/529377/4 "2010-02-17T20:50:57Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Currently, nuclear waste is stored (if my google skills are accurate) in 131 different locations spread across 39 states. The plan is that eventually all of it will be stored in Yucca Mountain in Nevada starting around the year 2017. The original deadline was 1998 so don’t put too much faith in that date. Indeed since Obama has pulled the plug on the Yucca Mountain site. A decision which Senator Mark Sanford has said he will sue the Obama administration over if he does not change his mind. No clue how it will all play out but clearly it is in limbo now. > [@](#): > > COLUMBIA – Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s decision to abandon a decades-old plan for Nevada’s Yucca Mountain could cost South Carolina $1.2 billion and leave the permanent storage of thousands of tons of nuclear waste in question, and the governor is prepared to sue over it. > > \ > > The president decided to eliminate all funding for the facility and withdraw its license application with the U.S. Department of Energy. > > SOURCE: [http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/feb/17/governor-challenges-yucca-mountain-call/](http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/feb/17/governor-challenges-yucca-mountain-call/) As to the follow-up question I do not know a reactor-by-reactor breakdown of how much waste is produced but I read that there is currently 70,000 tons in storage all over the US today and the US produces about 2,000 tons of nuclear waste per year ([cite](http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/16/obama.nuclear.power/?hpt=Sbin)). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/storage-of-nuclear-waste/529377/5 "2010-02-17T20:52:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Does all the nuclear waste generated in the U. S. go to one location? Nevada? Currently it’s kept on the site of each nuclear power plant (if we are talking about high level waste…other waste is disposed of in other locations, stuff like medical waste and such) The plan was to have a central repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but the last I heard Obama has (again) squashed this, or at least put it on hold (again). [Here](http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf04.html) is a site that talks about the amount of waste generated in the US a year: > [@](#): > > How much waste is produced? > > As already noted, the volume of nuclear waste produced by the nuclear industry is very small compared with other wastes generated. Each year, nuclear power generation facilities worldwide produce about 200,000 m3 of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, and about 10,000 m3 of high-level waste including used fuel designated as waste1. > > In the OECD countries, some 300 million tonnes of toxic wastes are produced each year, but conditioned radioactive wastes amount to only 81,000 m3 per year. In the UK for example, around 120,000,000 m3 of waste is generated per year - the equivalent of just over 20 dustbins full for every man, woman and child. The amount of nuclear waste produced per member of the UK populations is 840 cm3 (i.e. a volume of under one litre). Of this waste, 90% of the volume is only slightly radioactive and is categorised as low-level waste (with only 1% of the total radioactivity of all radioactive wastes). Intermediate-level waste makes up 7% of the volume and has 4% of the radioactivity. The most radioactive form of waste is categorised as high-level waste and whilst accounting for only 3% of the volume of all the radioactive waste produced (equating to around 25 cm3 per UK citizen per year), it contains 95% of the radioactivity. > > A typical 1000 MWe light water reactor will generate (directly and indirectly) 200-350 m3 low- and intermediate-level waste per year. It will also discharge about 20 m3 (27 tonnes) of used fuel per year, which corresponds to a 75 m3 disposal volume following encapsulation if it is treated as waste. Where that used fuel is reprocessed, only 3 m3 of vitrified waste (glass) is produced, which is equivalent to a 28 m3 disposal volume following placement in a disposal canister. > > This compares with an average 400,000 tonnes of ash produced from a coal-fired plant of the same power capacity. Today, volume reduction techniques and abatement technologies as well as continuing good practice within the work force all contribute to continuing minimisation of waste produced, a key principle of waste management policy in the nuclear industry. Whilst the volumes of nuclear wastes produced are very small, the most important issue for the nuclear industry is managing their toxic nature in a way that is environmentally sound and presents no hazard to both workers and the general public. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/storage-of-nuclear-waste/529377/6 "2010-02-17T20:56:04Z")
To add the Yucca Mountain site has a proposed capacity limit of 63,000 tons. According to the [Wiki article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#The_facility) on this that capacity would be reached by 2014. If the CNN link above is to be believed seems we are past that already. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/storage-of-nuclear-waste/529377/7 "2010-02-17T20:56:28Z")
You might also be interested in this article from some guy named Cecil. A lot of folks around here think he’s really smart. Could a year’s waste from a nuclear power plant be stored under a desk? > **[Could a year’s waste from a nuclear power plant be stored under a desk?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341389/could-a-year-s-waste-from-a-nuclear-power-plant-be-stored-under-a-desk)**