e steam that boiling the water makes is used to turn turbines, which in turn, generate electricity. Fission happens inside a carefully monitored nuclear reactor, when being used in a nuclear power plant. The fission process that nuclear power plants use spends approximately 30,000 tons of highly radioactive waste a year. (General Information)In a nuclear power plant, Uranium is used as fuel to boil the water for the steam that makes the turbines turn. So, uranium is, in a sense, the coal of a coal-fired power plant.When fueling nuclear power plants, the uranium arrives as uranium-enriched pellets. These pellets are an equivalent to one ton of coal. The pellets are sealed in tubes that are made of a strong heat- and corrosion-resistant metal alloy. This metal alloy will protect people and the environment from the high levels of radiation that the uranium is giving off. The tubes are bundled together to make a fuel assembly. The assemblies are put inside the reactor to create heat that will boil the water. The fuel assemblies are used until they are depleted. A fuel assembly is depleted when it no longer gives off enough energy to turn the turbines. Once every year, one third of the nuclear fuel in a reactor is replaced with fresh fuel. The used-up fuel is called spent fuel. Spent fuel is highly radioactive and is the primary form of high-level nuclear waste. (General Information)High-level radioactive waste is the by-product of commercial nuclear power plants generating electricity, and from nuclear materials production at defense facilities. This high-level waste must be isolated in a safe place for thousands of years so its radioactivity can die down and not be harmful to people and the environment. The name of the "safe place" that the Department of Energy is trying to make is called a repository. But until a repository is made, spent fuel and high-level waste is being stored in temporary storage facilities called dry...
