Doing something about high-level nuclear waste

In addition to a growing stockpile of spent fuel rods from commercial reactors, the United States must contend with about 100 million gallons of liquid high-level waste. Almost all of this liquid waste comes from Department of Energy plants that reclaim radioactive elements from the spent fuel rods of defense reactors to manufacture materials for nuclear weapons. The waste contains more than a billion curies of radioactivity. That's a lot less than the radioactivity in the inventory of spent fuel rods, but liquid waste is more dispersible and hence more dangerous. For now, the waste is being stored in large tanks below ground level. A permanent disposal method for high-level waste is urgently needed. A technological solution is well in hand. Over the last 30 years, a way of safely and permanently disposing of high-level waste has been developed, refined, and demonstrated. It is called vitrification, or glassification. This method, and its current applications, are outlined in this article. A discussion of radioactive waste is also presented.