Since the late 1950s, Americans have come to rely more and more on energy generated from nuclear reactors. Today, 109 commercial nuclear reactors supply over one-fifth of the electricity used to run our homes, schools, factories, and farms. When the nuclear fuel can no longer sustain a fission reaction in these reactors it becomes 'spent' or 'used' and is removed from the reactors and stored onsite. Most of our Nation's spent nuclear fuel is currently being stored in specially designed deep pools of water at reactor sites; some is being stored aboveground in heavy thick-walled metal or concrete structures. Sites currently using aboveground dry storage systems include Virginia Power's Surry Plant, Carolina Power and Light's H.B. Robinson Plant, Duke Power's Oconee Nuclear Station, Colorado Public Service Company's shutdown reactor at Fort St. Vrain, Baltimore Gas and Electric's Calvert Cliffs Plant, and Michigan's Consumer Power Palisades Plant.

Nuclear wastes are the radioactive byproducts of nuclear power generation, nuclear weapons production, and other uses of nuclear material. Experts from around the world agree that deep geologic disposal of nuclear waste in a mined repository is the most environmentally sound means of removing these potential sources of radiation from interaction with the biosphere. Of the 360 millirem of background radiation received annually by the average American, from both natural and man-made sources, less than 1 millirem results from the nuclear fuel cycle. Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, destined for geologic disposal, are located at 126 sites in 39 states. The proposed repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is far more isolated from the general population than any sites where these radioactive materials are presently located. Only solid forms of high-level wastes will be transported for disposal in a geologic repository. For more than 50 years, nuclear materials have been safely transported in North America, Europe, and Asia, without a single significant radiation release. Since the 1950s, select panels from the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council and interagency advisory groups, and international experts selected by the OECD/Nuclear Energy Agency, have examined the environmental, ethical, and intergenerational aspects of nuclear waste disposal, plus alternatives to geologic disposal. All have concluded that deep geologic disposal in a mined repository is clearly the preferred option. The concept of deep geologic disposal is based on the analogy to ore deposits, which are formed deep within the Earth's crust, commonly remain isolated from the biosphere for millions to billions of years, and are, generally, extremely difficult to detect. Before selecting the unsaturated tuffs at Yucca Mountain, DOE evaluated salt formations, basalts, and both crystalline and sedimentary rocks. Other nations generating nuclear power also plan to use deep geologic disposal, and are evaluating sites in granites, argillaceous rocks, and salt formations.

Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production and power generation has caused public outcry and political consternation. Nuclear Wastes presents a critical review of some waste management and disposal alternatives to the current national policy of direct disposal of light water reactor spent fuel. The book offers clearcut conclusions for what the nation should do today and what solutions should be explored for tomorrow. The committee examines the currently used "once-through" fuel cycle versus different alternatives of separations and transmutation technology systems, by which hazardous radionuclides are converted to nuclides that are either stable or radioactive with short half-lives. The volume provides detailed findings and conclusions about the status and feasibility of plutonium extraction and more advanced separations technologies, as well as three principal transmutation concepts for commercial reactor spent fuel. The book discusses nuclear proliferation; the U.S. nuclear regulatory structure; issues of health, safety and transportation; the proposed sale of electrical energy as a means of paying for the transmutation system; and other key issues.