Concerns about nuclear reactions have increased since Russia invaded Ukraine last week and targeted nuclear power sites in the country, such as the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky even called for a no-fly zone Saturday after the attacks.
Why do we have nuclear power plants in the first place, and what happens to nuclear waste when we don’t need it?
According to the U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA), “all nuclear power plants use nuclear fission,” a process where atoms – tiny particles that make up matter – are split apart and release energy in the form of heat and radiation. Most nuclear power plants use uranium atoms because they are easily split apart.
Advantages to using nuclear power, according to the Office of Nuclear Energy within the U.S. Department of Energy, are that it is a clean energy source, that it is reliable and that it supports jobs. As of December 2020, there were 56 nuclear power plants operating in the U.S.
There are 15 nuclear reactors operating in Ukraine. It is home to Europe’s largest power plant, the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Energodar. Russian Federation forces attacked the plant Thursday, leading to a fire at the site.
Before the attack on Zaporizhzhya, Russian forces also took control of the Chernobyl site, where there was a nuclear disaster in 1986. A flawed reactor design and inadequate operation of the plant resulted in 5 percent of the radioactive reactor core being released into the environment, according to the World Nuclear Association.
After the Russian invasion, there was an increased level of radiation measured at the site, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Exposure to radioactive materials can lead to radiation sickness. According to the Mayo Clinic, radiation sickness usually happens from a large dose of radiation often received over a short period of time. Symptoms can include nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever, dizziness and disorientation, weakness and fatigue, hair loss and more.
“A major environmental concern related to nuclear power is the creation of radioactive wastes such as uranium mill tailings, spent (used) reactor fuel, and other radioactive wastes,” said the EIA. “These materials can remain radioactive and dangerous to human health for thousands of years.”
Finland was recently granted approval for a facility where nuclear waste could be “entombed” for 100,000 years – the amount of time it would take for material not to be dangerous to humans, said an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) report.
In the past, permanent storage facilities for nuclear waste in France, Sweden, and the U.S. have received pushback.
“The nation has over 85,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. While the Department of Energy is “responsible for disposing of this high-level waste in a permanent geologic repository, but has yet to build such a facility because policymakers have been at an impasse over what to do with this spent fuel since 2010,” said the office.
According to AAAS, Finland’s nuclear waste repository is expected to open “in a few years,” outside of Eurajoki, Finland, and will be named Onkalo, meaning “pit” or “cavity” in Finnish. Spent uranium fuel is expected to be kept nearly half a kilometer below Earth’s surface at the facility.
Though the repository will be deep, the porous rock still has cracks. Plans include giant copper casks, water-absorbing bentonite clay and water-resistant crystalline rock to protect “harmful radionuclides” from escaping.
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