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Nuclear fuel pellets are placed in rods and bundled into fuel assemblies.
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The nuclear waste destined for a
repository at Yucca Mountain is called
spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste. This waste will
be in solid form such as metals,
ceramics, and glass with small amounts
of radioactive gases.
These materials cannot spill or
explode. The nuclear waste is dangerous
because it will emit radiation for
tens of thousands of years.
Spent nuclear fuel is used fuel from nuclear reactors at commercial power plants, research reactors, government facilities, and from Navy vessels.
To make electricity, nuclear reactors use fuel made of solid ceramic pellets of enriched uranium that are sealed in strong metal tubes. The tubes are bundled together to form a nuclear fuel assembly. The uranium pellets are about the size of the tip of your little finger.
After three or four years in a reactor, however, the uranium pellets are no longer efficient for producing electricity and the assembly is removed from the reactor. After removal, the entire assembly (now called spent nuclear fuel) is highly radioactive.
Depending on the type of reactor, fuel assemblies can be as long as 16 feet and can weigh up to 1,200 pounds each.
 With the end of the Cold War, the United States has been working to close and clean up obsolete weapons plants and dispose of nuclear weapons materials. This has created a need to dispose of highly radioactive material associated with weapons production. This material is called high-level radioactive waste.
Until the late 1970s, the United States acquired materials for nuclear weapons by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from government-owned nuclear reactors. Reprocessing is a method of chemically treating spent fuel to separate out uranium and plutonium. The byproduct of reprocessing is a highly radioactive sludge-like residue.
The Department of Energy will not ship high-level waste to a repository until it is solidified (mixed with sand and melted into a glass-like form) and sealed in stainless steel canisters, pictured above. All high-level nuclear waste is currently stored at government-owned or licensed facilities.
Key Fact: The wastes DOE plans to put in the proposed Yucca Mountain repository are solid (not liquid).
The nuclear waste destined for disposal at a repository will be in the form of solid metals, ceramics, and glass with small amounts of radioactive gases.
Key Fact: Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste cannot cause an explosion.
Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste are not explosive. Even if these materials were involved in an explosion (like a transportation accident involving an oil tanker), they cannot cause a nuclear chain reaction.
Key Fact: Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste are not flammable.
Since these materials are composed of metals, ceramics, and glass, they cannot fuel a fire.
Last reviewed: 04/08
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