What options does the U.S. have for storage of nuclear waste?

Question

What options does the U.S. have for storage of nuclear waste?

Answer 1

Yucca Mountain

Answer 2

Nevada's Desert Sumps

I wonder how do some racists still think of sending it to a 3rd world country

Answer 3

send it to a 3rd world country.

or space.

Answer 4

The current feeling is it can be stored anywhere but not in my backyard (NIMBY).  This is the political obstacle that currently faces the US.  

Technically, you need to know there are different kinds of waste based on there level of radioactivity.  Low level waste, medical waste (a very large percentage of the overall), research, and much of the power industry day-to-day waste is buried in special landfills.  The biggest (I think)  in South Carolina (Barnwell).  The Department of Energy has a burial site for low level waste in Nevada (NTIS).

A small fraction of the waste is highly radioactive and toxic spent nuclear fuel.  This is currently stored in pools of water for cooling and shielding at each of the commercial plants around the country.  After about ten years, the spent fuel can be stored in dry canisters at the sites.

The US government by law is the only entity authorized to take long term possession of that spent fuel for permanent storage.  They are building the repository at Yucca Mountain.  An area previously used in the 1950s for A-bomb tests.  The state of Nevada is against the project because of NIMBY.

There are other options besides long term burial but they are not as desirable.  The basic need is to separate the high level waste from people for as long as possible and ensure that if the material is re-introduced to the environment it is in minute amounts over eons.  Poeple have talked about shooting the waste into space/ into the sun.  But rocket launches are far too risky.  A failed attempt would rain the waste back down onto the planet in an uncontrolled manner.  In the 1950s, the materials were packaged in steel containers and dropped in the deep ocean with the idea that re-introduction would be at a slow pace over centuries.  This was not found acceptable by most and deep geological burial has been the preferred method since.

As to third world countries... eventually one or another foreign country will likely offer to take the waste off our hands for a price.  If we cannot solve our own problems, this would become a sleezy way out.   (Like New York City sending its garbage to Mexico).  It might be done safely, but to save a buck (peso) it might not.  We would not control storage and would worry about diversion to other uses.  All in all the US needs to solve its own storage issue.

Answer 5

The WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) is in operation, near Carlsbad, NM. and has already accepted quite a bit of medium to low-level nuke waste.

Yucca Mountain, NV. is the only other place being opened to accept nuke waste -- high-level stuff, mainly.

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