Wastes
Pellets of uranium oxide used as fuel for most nuclear reactors are bundled in metal tubes to create fuel assemblies,these assemblies contain 50-270 tubes. They are stored for approximately three years before they are considered waste. This waste is millions of times more radioactive than fresh uranium fuel (NWPO, 1997).
The proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository would hold at least 70,000 metric tons of waste with radiation equivalent to more than one million atomic bombs, the size dropped on Hiroshima (NWPO, 1997).