Radioactive Waste Disposal, High Level 1980

Highly radioactive wastes are dangerous and deadly wherever they are, whether stored at reactor sites (indoors in pools or outdoors in dry casks); transported on the roads, rails, or waterways; or dumped on Native American lands out West. Highly radioactive wastes include solid irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies (called spent or used by the industry that creates them) and liquid high-level radioactive wastes resulting from the reprocessing (extraction of fissile plutonium and uranium) of solid irradiated fuel rods. The vast majority of highly radioactive wastes generated in the U.S. come from commercial nuclear power reactors. Irradiated nuclear fuel rods discharged from commercial nuclear power plants are highly radioactive, a million times more so than when they were first loaded into a reactor core as fresh fuel. If unshielded, irradiated nuclear fuel just removed from a reactor core could deliver a lethal dose of radiation to a person standing three feet away in just seconds. Even after decades of radioactive decay, a few minutes unshielded exposure could deliver a lethal dose. Certain radioactive elements (such as plutonium-239) in spent fuel will remain hazardous to humans and other living beings for hundreds of thousands of years. Other radioisotopes will remain hazardous for millions of years. Thus, these wastes must be shielded for centuries and isolated from the living environment for hundreds of millenia. For more on the problems of this waste disposal, go to the Radioactive Waste Project site of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service at http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/hlw/hlw.htm . This clip is from the 1980 Disney film, The Atom: A Closer Look, available at the Internet Archives,.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• radioactive
• waste
• nuclear
• power
• hazardous
• material
• handling
• disposal
• environmental
• health
• safety
• worker
• OSHA
• NIOSH
• EPA
• DOE
• NRC
• NIEHS
• hazwoper
• ALARA
• industrial
• hygiene
• atomic
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• Yucca
• Mountain

[badnewswade]

@rog197236 Either shoot it into the sun or bury it somewhere and forget all about it.

The Russians have developed a special anti radiation drug in case there are accidents - it's called "vodka".

[TheEgg185]

2:32 Super Mario Bros 2 level 2

[tehmadcap]

@Hodgeisdaman The funny part is the sun is a constant nuclear reaction.

[Hodgeisdaman]

@tehmadcap but then all the enviromentalist would make a group posed to saving the sun or some crap

[1991Timmo]

@tehmadcap well just as well it will never happen mr rocket scientist

[tehmadcap]

@1991Timmo You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. The only problem is getting it to the sun, if we could do that safely the sun would be the perfect candidate for high level waste disposal. However, the risk of the transport rocket exploding in the atmosphere and showering the planet with radioactive waste is far too great. This is why it is out of question and will never happen. It's also the reason we can't power rockets with nuclear energy.

[1991Timmo]

@giantsean well we dont want anymore radioactive particles than what the sun already gives out do we? but yes thanx for pointing that out

[giantsean]

@1991Timmo Umm... the sun already emits radioactive particles. Though it IS a stupid idea.

[dawkzfunk]

@cmowforth You'll love "Boards of canada" then. Their music is heavily based on these documental tunes :)

[1991Timmo]

@badnewswade thats a good idea, shoot it in2 the sun so that the sun can not only give off heat and light but radioactive waves as well and poisen the whole universe, thats a great fucking idea u braindead redneck

[indyfan22k]

@b1aflatoxin Yea, its amazing how big of a Boondoggle Yuca is.

The irony of radioactive particles is it can give you cancer and it can also kill cancer.

1980 ? it looks like late 1960s film quality and prodcution.

What's crazy is most people don't know about the enormity of the "Hanford site"