"this country is choking on its own nuclear waste€¦If we don't solve the problem of our spent nuclear fuel soon, the American tax payer will bear the cost of the financial liability€¦and the environmental damages from losing 20 percent of clean, emissions free electricity energy generation." Sen. Frank Murkowski R-Alaska Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee (Hansen, 2001)
While the production phase of nuclear power is considered an "emissions free" energy source the end of the nuclear life cycle is quite controversial and incredibly dangerous. Radioactive waste poses arguably the biggest challenge to the nuclear power industry with environmental injustices and high costs at the forefront of concern. The by-products of spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants are highly radioactive and have long half-lives, making their potential for harm over 100,000 years long (Hansen, 2001). With over 100 active power plants in the United States alone producing on average 33 tons of waste per year per 1,000 megawatts (Wald, 2009), a permanent storage facility has been the goal of the industry for the past three decades. Recent developments with regards to Yucca Mountain, Nevada had the industry looking towards a positive future but President Obama has put the project on hold and once again placed a dark cloud of the future of nuclear energy (Illia, 2010).
Main Problems Facing the Waste Management of Radioactive Materials