Ancient Nuclear Waste Is Teaching Us About Radioactive Storage Today
There are 99 nuclear reactors currently operating in the United States. The power they generate is free of carbon dioxide emissions, but as a byproduct, they also generate small amounts of nuclear waste in the form of spent uranium.
Even after the uranium in the fuel reactors is spent it remains radioactive, and that means storing it is difficult. Controversy over a permanent storage facility deep within Yucca Mountain in Nevada has left most of reactor waste stored on-site at nuclear pow