Agreed. Trash wise, and # of people wise, we are doing a bad job as a whole. Greenp*ssy wont allow us to start using the clean energy called Nuclear Energy. They even complain about large fields of Wind Power.
Worst group ever when it comes to big things they refuse to understand.
I am not sure on how the actual process works and some of this may be wrong, but, basically the uranium turns into lighter elements some of which are radioactive. The radioactive lighter elements can be shipped off to another power plant that uses them to create energy. I am not sure how they do this, but it has been used in a few plants in Russia in the 1970s. So we can basically get rid of the nuclear waste and get energy from it at the same time (cake + eating).
The reason that Russia stopped doing this (and no other countries started) is because the process is very volatile and the chemicals tend to explode quite easily. After a few such explosions, Russia closed their plants and when back to putting nuclear waste in mountains.
Radiation is produced when an unstable atom sheds particles in an attempt to stabilize itself. Alpha particles (2 Protons, 2 Neutrons), beta prticles(AN electron/positron), and gamma rays are emitted as part of this cycle. The change in the element's identity, called transmutation, occurs when alpha or beta prticles are emitted - the emission of either causes a change in the original atom's atomic number (# of protons); this determines the atom's identity and properties. For example, if an atom of U-235 was to emit alpha radiation, it would become Thorium-231 ( A loss of two protons and two neutrons. If that atom of Th-231 were to emit a beta particle, it would become Protactinium-231 (A neutron split apart to provide the electron. The electron was emitted, but the proton resulting form that split stayed behind). This cycle continues, sometimes for billions of years, until the atom finally reaches a stable isotope. The U-235 decay cycle I believe ends as Lead-206. This is just a really basic explanation of radiation.
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This is the main issue with nuclear power - how much waste it produces. Our current processes for producing power are very inefficient - in some designs, less than 1% of the is energy produced is used in energy production. Other reactor designs (The Integral Fast Reactor, for example) are much more efficient. The IFR could supposedly use 99.5% of the energy produced. The remaining wastes are collected, sent to anohter area of the site, and reprocessed into new fuel. The end result is that you have an almost self-sustaining nuclear plant, which produced almost enough fuel to replace waht was originally used.
The number one issue facing waste reprocessing (The US did do this for a little while, I believe) is the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Reporocessing used Uranium-235 yields Plutonium-239, weapons grade fuel. There was always the risk that terrorists could break into a reprocessing site and steal fuel to use in weapons. As a result of this and other risks, the US killed the IFR project in the 90's and stopped waste reprocessing.
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