What are the radioactive wastes proposed for disposal at Yucca Mountain?
Ninety percent of the waste proposed for disposal at the Yucca Mountain facility consists of spent nuclear fuel. Spent nuclear fuel is produced as a waste product by nuclear reactors present in commercial nuclear power plants, government reactors, and naval propulsion plant reactors. The remaining 10% of wastes proposed for disposal at Yucca Mountain consists of high-level radioactive waste, which is produced from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. These materials contain radioactive elements such as cesium, strontium, technetium, and neptunium. While some of these will remain radioactive for only a few years, others will be radioactive for millions of years.
