Talk:High level waste

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[edit] final disposal

Issues for final disposal are not urgent?? How is this the conclusion from the numbers given? Wagsbags March 6 2007

[edit] Merge

I posted the Merge today. There is no article on Spent nuclear fuel, so I redirected that term to Radioactive waste. Simesa 01:30, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

I would suggest that the merge could be a good thing, the current article has the potneital to confuse the reader as it does not explain the difference between spent fuel and so called high level waste (which is PUREX first cycle (Highly active cycle) raffinate). You might want to consider merging with the Nuclear fuel page, as I have added a section on spent fuel there.

In short.......

Spent fuel is used nuclear fuel which has been used in the form of the used fuel without chemical processing.

High level waste is the mixture of minor actinides and Fission products which results from the chemical processing of used nuclear fuel to recover the major actinides (U and Pu).

Cadmium 22:52, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

4/9/06: I say keep it a seperate article, but note the relationship. I came here looking for the difference between low-level and high-level nuclea material, and "radioactive waste" does not explain this difference. Chris O.

I believe the article should be separate. The publics' perception of waste as unimportant and that all waste is the same needs to be challenged and the differences between different waste streams with different waste management processes be made clear. --Alex 12:56, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Units

I had an issue with the following quote from the article:

"A typical large nuclear reactor produces 25-30 tons of spent fuel per year. If the fuel were reprocessed and vitrified, the waste would be only about 3 cubic meters per year."

25-30 tons is a lot, and 3 cubic meters doesn't seem like a lot, but it wouldn't surprise me if this is extremely dense stuff. How much does 3 cubic meters weigh? Changing the units for comparison purposes doesn't seem smart. - MordredKLB 01:18, 13 April 2007 (UTC)