How much waste is created from producing a kilowatt hour of electricity through nuclear power?

Nuclear Waste

The U.S. accumulates about 2,000-2,400 mt of spent fuel each year.27

During reactor operation, fission products and transuranics that absorb neutrons accumulate, requiring a third of the fuel to be replaced every 12-18 months. Spent fuel is 95% non-fissile U-238, 3% fission products, 1% fissile U-235, and 1% plutonium.16

Spent fuel is placed in a storage pool of pumped, cooled water to absorb heat and block the high radioactivity of fission products, where it typically remains for at least 5 years.27

Some countries (excluding U.S.) reprocess spent fuel for reuse as mixed oxide fuel, which reduces the volume of radioactive waste but raises proliferation concerns.28

Many U.S. spent fuel pools are reaching capacity, necessitating the use of dry cask storage. Dry casks, large concrete and stainless steel containers, are designed to passively cool radioactive waste and withstand natural disasters or large impacts. In 2011, 27% of spent fuel was held in dry casks, after sufficient cooling in storage pools.29

Currently, 34 states have complexes designed for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel, or Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations (ISFSI).30

Ten years after use, the surface of a spent fuel assembly releases 10,000 rem/hr of radiation (in comparison, a dose of 500 rem is lethal to humans if received all at once).18 Managing nuclear waste requires very long-term planning. U.S. EPA was required to set radiation exposure limits in permanent waste storage facilities over an unprecedented timeframe—one million years.31

The U.S. has no permanent storage site. Nevada’s Yucca Mountain was to hold 70,000 mt waste but is no longer under consideration.32

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act required the U.S. federal government to begin taking control of spent nuclear fuel in 1998. When this did not occur, the government became liable for the costs associated with continued on-site, at-reactor storage.33

The waste per kilowatt would be miniscule. Try waste per megawatt.