How are nuclear fuel wastes handled?
Radioactive waste is generally divided into three categories depending on its level of radioactivity: low, intermediate and high-level waste. Low-level waste includes slightly contaminated clothing and items that comes from places such as nuclear medicine wards in hospitals, research laboratories and nuclear plants. Low-level waste contains only small amounts of radioactivity that decays away in hours or days. After the radioactivity has decayed, low-level waste can be treated like ordinary garbage. Intermediate-level wastes mostly come from the nuclear industry. They include used reactor components and contaminated materials from reactor decommissioning. Typically these wastes are embedded in concrete for disposal and buried. High-level waste generally describes spent fuel from nuclear reactors. Spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants is initially stored in large water-filled pools. The water provides shielding from the radiation and cooling to remove the heat, which continues to
