Nuclear Fuel and Nuclear Waste

Uranium is an element found in the Earth's crust. There is enough mineable uranium to supply reactor fuel for another century. Reprocessing of spent fuel rods can extend the Earth's uranium fuel supply forever.

Uranium ore is processed into fuel rods that are used in a nuclear reactor. The fuel rods typically spend 5-6 years inside the reactor until about 3% of their uranium has been fissioned. The spent fuel rods are highly radioactive. They are then moved to a spent fuel pool where they lose their radioactivity through a process called radioactive decay. After about 5 years in a cooling pond, the spent fuel is thermally cooled enough to handle. It can then be moved to dry storage or be reprocessed into new fuel rods.

The safe storage and disposal of nuclear waste remains a significant challenge. A large nuclear reactor produces 25–30 tons of spent fuel each year. As of 2007, the United States had accumulated more than 50,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors. Underground storage at Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been proposed as a permanent storage. After 10,000 years of radioactive decay, the spent nuclear fuel will no longer pose a threat to public health and safety.