Waste management - how?
MENU_Wastes
MENU_Types of radioactive waste
MENU_High-level waste
MENU_Management of spent fuel
MENU_Low- and intermediate-level waste
MENU_Volumes
MENU_Transport
MENU_Radiation and radioactive waste
MENU_Transmutation
MENU_Waste producers
MENU_Nuclear power plants
MENU_Nuclear fuel cycle
MENU_Reprocessing
MENU_Operational waste from NPPs
MENU_Decommissioning of NPPs
MENU_Medicine, industry and research
MENU_Waste management concept
MENU_Waste management programme
MENU_Why deep geological disposal?
MENU_Ethics and responsibility
MENU_Waste management options
MENU_Demonstration of disposal feasibility
MENU_Long-term safety
MENU_Retrievability
MENU_Deep geological repositories
MENU_Geological repository HLW
MENU_Geological repository LLW
MENU_Waste management today
MENU_Packaging
MENU_Interim storage
MENU_Waste inventories
MENU_Natural analogues
MENU_Natural analogues for engineered barriers
MENU_Natural analogues for glass
MENU_Natural analogues for metal
MENU_Natural analogues for clay
MENU_Natural analogues for geological barriers
MENU_Geological barriers – cristalline rock
MENU_Geological barriers – clay
MENU_Example ammonite
MENU_Example salt deposit
MENU_Natural reactors
MENU_Research
MENU_Laboratory studies
MENU_Rock laboratories
MENU_Grimsel
MENU_Geology
MENU_Experiments
MENU_Mont Terri
MENU_Geology
MENU_Experiments
MENU_Other countries
MENU_Belgium
MENU_Finland
MENU_France
MENU_Germany
MENU_The Netherlands
MENU_Spain
MENU_Sweden
MENU_United Kingdom
MENU_Canada
MENU_Japan
MENU_USA
Waste from nuclear power plants
The nuclear power plants are the largest producers of radioactive waste. The fission and activation products from spent nuclear fuel represent high-level waste. Operational waste and decommissioning waste arising from the dismantling of the nuclear power plants require to be disposed of as low- and intermediate-level waste.
The blue glow seen in water shielding radiation, in this case a nuclear reactor, is a result of radiation being absorbed by the water and made visible in the form of harmless light. On the right in the image is an open reactor during the annual inspection and on the left in the image a storage pool for spent fuel elements (NPP Gösgen-Däniken).
(Image: NPP Gösgen-Däniken)
