Nuclear Waste Policy Act Of 1982

Nuclear waste is a radioactive waste that is dangerous, and a fair percentage of people would agree on this topic. However, is it really dangerous or is it just harmful to an extent? In society, many debates are held over trying to prove to the world that this substance is harmful. In the essay, “Nuclear Waste,” Muller states clearly that he sides with the anti-nuke of the debate and how he pinpoints the facts of nuclear waste with great persuasion. Yet, it is uncertain whether Muller clearly has a good argument and/or answers the questions that many people linger to know.

•     Waste from nuclear energy stays radioactive for thousands of years. Great care has to be taken in storing this waste safely.

The Institute for Energy and Environment offered and alternative in 1999 for the management of nuclear waste. For short term storage the Institute for Energy and Research (IEER) recommended nuclear waste should be stored as near and safely as possible from where it was produced. IEER suggests that the sites need to be dry and as close as possible to the place where the waste was generated to avoid a potential terrorist disaster. The funding for the extra storage on the site should come from the Federal Governments Nuclear Waste Fund. For short term storage the Institute for Energy and Environment Research (IEER) recommended nuclear waste should be stored as near and safely as possible from where it was produced. IEER suggests that the sites need to be dry and as close as possible to the place where the waste was generated to avoid a potential terrorist disaster. The funding for the extra storage on the site should come from the Federal Governments Nuclear Waste Fund. Many repositories should be looked and studied for more than a decade and none prioritized. Finding a permanent and safe solution is very difficult and would require a lot of time because of the want for good science (Ledwidge,

Today, a considerable amount of energy is provided by nuclear energy. The technology is well organized and developing every passing day and as a result the cost of operation is falling. Using radioactive resources to produce energy generates waste. Waste that contains radioactive materials is called nuclear waste. The secure and environmentally-friendly disposal of nuclear waste is a crucial aspect of nuclear power programs. [1]

The word “Nuclear” instills fear in the general American public’s mind. The simple utter of said word brings memories of huge mushrooms clouds and destruction, or the thought of communism and 50 years of an uncertain, yet terrifying Cold War. Whatever it may be the fact of the matter is that Americans are extremely afraid of anything that has the word Nuclear in it. In the article “Nuclear Waste” published in 2008 by physics professor, and winner of the MacArthur Fellowship award, Richard Muller claims that storing nuclear waste under the Nevada Yucca Mountains can prove to be a safe and efficient way to solve the problem of nuclear waste disposal. Muller supports his argument by first providing the reader with the anti-nuke

The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act (PAA) is a United States federal law, enacted by the 85th U.S. Congress on September 2, 1957 (Fact 2014).

The existing policy for American nuclear waste disposal was set fourth in 1982 with the passing of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA). What followed was an unpredictable series of management and policy design failures that led to the closing of Yucca Mountain as America’s federal nuclear waste repository, costing taxpayers billions and leaving the nation without long term option to deal with nuclear waste. The Act tasked the federal Department of Energy (DOE) with finding and investigating a location for two federal geologic depositories for nuclear waste, one in the West and one in the East, and construction of the facilities. It also named the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a government organization that regulates the construction

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974. Prompted from a need to regulate the uses of nuclear material in private and commercial applications after World War II, the United State government developed the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1946. The law established in 1946 created a monopoly, through the United States government, on nuclear research and development into military aspects of nuclear energy. By 1954, Congress passed a new Atomic Energy Act that would change the focus of research and development from military uses to energy production and commercial applications. The AEC wanted to push the commercial energy production so that the United States would stay ahead in the scientific

So what is nuclear waste, I hear you ask. It is what's left over after nuclear fuel has been through the reactor, once used in the reactor it'll make nuclear energy what's left behind is dangerously radioactive. Uranium is the main component of what goes in a reactor and it is split into almost every other atoms there are during the reaction so it's no longer stable and safe. Nuclear waste is very dangerous and for those of you who have seen to many movies or read to many comic books where people who come

Due to the situation, that places us back to where we were on the crucial question of “What are we going to do with all the radioactive waste being discharged by U.S. nuclear power reactors?”. Although when you bear in mind the other radioactive waste streams made by converting and plutonium recycling, the amount of the long lived radioactive waste is not reduced. The French reprocessing company AREVA states that its process lowers the amount and endurance of the radioactive waste created by the nuclear power reactors.

Nuclear energy is the energy released by a nuclear reaction, it uses fuel made from mined and processed uranium to generate heat and electricity. It is the world’s largest emission free energy source. Nuclear energy also has the lowest impact on the environment than other energy sources. But it can still be very harmful because of the radiation is causes and the radioactive waste it produces. Radioactive wastes are the ruins of nuclear materials that are used in providing nuclear energy. These wastes contain high levels of radiation that can be very hazardous to humans and the environment. Some people accept and support the idea of using nuclear energy and others don’t. In the following paragraphs, some major nuclear accidents and the public acceptance of nuclear energy will be discussed.

Nuclear waste is a problem that is not going to just disappear so the idea of reprocessing nuclear fuel to control the waste that is left behind is a good way of dealing with it. Some opponents of reprocessing nuclear fuel say that doing this will create a risk of terrorists stealing the plutonium that is separated using this method. The problem with this theory is that the plutonium that is produced is not considered weapons grade plutonium. The other problem with reprocessing nuclear waste opponents say is transporting the material once it has been separated. This would be a vulnerable time for accidents or for someone to try and steal the plutonium for some type of nefarious purpose. Proponents of reprocessing the nuclear waste say

Nuclear waste is the substance that nuclear fuel becomes after it has been used in a reactor. Although the metal rods appear unchanged after their use, the material inside has changed greatly. Before it was used to produce power, the fuel mainly consisted of uranium. In order to create heat energy in the reactor, U235 undergoes fission. Fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts. As a result of this, there is a chain reaction which creates heat. The control rods control the fission rate and the temperature. In the steam generator, the heat and cooling water create pressured steam which moves the turbine. The turbine creates energy that goes into a generator which gives off electricity. The water from the turbine is able to become usable since it gets cooled. Once a reactor reaches its lifetime, it becomes spent fuel and is treated as waste. Most countries bury the spent fuel or reuse it. In the U.S., we haven’t decided what to do with the spent fuel so most of the spent fuel rods are stored in temporary storage pools. In the future, the United States plans to bury the waste in the Yucca Mountains which are located in Nevada. This would be a suitable place since it is not close to humans or the environment.

Nuclear waste is also bad because of the cost to keep it in safe and contained areas. The nuclear business let's waste cool for a considerable length of time before blending it with glass and putting away it in enormous cooled, solid structures. This waste must be kept up, observed and

The Generation of hazardous waste by the human activities increase the risk of the damage to the environment and the human health. These create a very negative impact if not disposed properly. In the state of Illinois the implementation of the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is referred to as hazardous waste. This act consists of the changes to the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1956 and signed into the law of 1976. The regulations related to the implementation of