Every industry must manage its waste. There are two types of nuclear waste—high level and low level. High level waste is the spent fuel, which has been removed from the reactor during refueling. It is a solid, inert material that cannot ignite or explode.
The amount of high level waste produced by Callaway Plant is very small compared to the enormous amount of energy the plant generates. Since Callaway Plant began operating in 1984, all of its spent fuel has been safely stored on site in the spent fuel pool, a stainless steel-lined water pool located inside the fuel building. The spent fuel is stored underwater because water is an effective shield against radiation. Spent fuel loses about 90 percent of its radioactivity in the first year of storage.
Every nuclear plant in the U.S. currently stores its own spent fuel. The U.S. government is exploring whether to dispose of spent nuclear fuel in a specially designed national repository. The repository currently being studied is located under Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
Nuclear plants also must dispose of low-level radioactive waste, which includes items such as towels, clothing and tools that have come into contact with radioactive materials. At Callaway Plant, this low-level waste is either safely stored on site or shipped by truck to a federally or state licensed disposal facility.
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