Waste products of nuclear power generation

[motorollin]

How much waste product does nuclear power generation actually create? Does it take up much space? If the entire planet were to go nuclear, would the processing of radioactive waste pose a problem, or is the waste product small enough that space could be found to bury it? How long does it take for the waste products to degrade to a safe level?

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moto

[motorollin]

The Fernald site in Ohio for example had "31 million pounds of uranium product", "2.5 billion pounds of waste", "2.75 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris", and a "223 acre portion of the underlying Great Miami Aquifer had uranium levels above drinking standards".

Can those figures really be correct?! Those figures seem very high for just a single site!

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moto

[motorollin]

Looks like large-scale (i.e. global) nuclear power generation would create a lot of hazardous waste. Lets face it, we haven't harnessed solar, hydro and wind power sufficiently to power the entire planet. So when we run out of fossil fuels and are forced to resort to nuclear power, what are we going to do with all the waste? Burying it will only work for so long before we run out of uninhabited space.

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moto