Editing Nuclear power (section)

==== Waste disposal ====
{{See also|List of radioactive waste treatment technologies}}
[[File:WIPP-04.jpeg|alt=Storage of radioactive waste at WIPP|thumb|[[nuclear flask|Nuclear waste flasks]] generated by the United States during the Cold War are stored underground at the [[Waste Isolation Pilot Plant]] (WIPP) in [[New Mexico]]. The facility is seen as a potential demonstration for storing spent fuel from civilian reactors.]]
Following interim storage in a [[spent fuel pool]], the bundles of used fuel rod assemblies of a typical nuclear power station are often stored on site in [[dry cask storage]] vessels.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/dry-cask-storage.html |title=NRC: Dry Cask Storage |publisher=Nrc.gov |date=2013-03-26 |access-date=2013-06-22 |archive-date=2013-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602195818/http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/dry-cask-storage.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Presently, waste is mainly stored at individual reactor sites and there are over 430 locations around the world where radioactive material continues to accumulate.

Disposal of nuclear waste is often considered the most politically divisive aspect in the lifecycle of a nuclear power facility.<ref name=mont2011>Montgomery, Scott L. (2010). ''The Powers That Be'', University of Chicago Press, p. 137.</ref> The lack of movement of nuclear waste in the 2 billion year old [[natural nuclear fission reactor]]s in [[Oklo]], [[Gabon]] is cited as "a source of essential information today."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.efn.org.au/NucWaste-Comby.pdf |title= international Journal of Environmental Studies, The Solutions for Nuclear waste, December 2005 |access-date= 2013-06-22 |archive-date= 2013-04-26 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130426083758/http://www.efn.org.au/NucWaste-Comby.pdf |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0010.shtml |title=Oklo: Natural Nuclear Reactors |publisher=U.S. Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Yucca Mountain Project, DOE/YMP-0010|date=November 2004 |access-date=2009-09-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090825013752/http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/factsheets/doeymp0010.shtml |archive-date=2009-08-25 }}</ref> Experts suggest that centralized underground repositories which are well-managed, guarded, and monitored, would be a vast improvement.<ref name=mont2011 /> There is an "international consensus on the advisability of storing nuclear waste in [[deep geological repository|deep geological repositories]]".<ref name=go /> With the advent of new technologies, other methods including [[horizontal drillhole disposal]] into geologically inactive areas have been proposed.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Disposal of High-Level Nuclear Waste in Deep Horizontal Drillholes|date=May 29, 2019|journal=Energies|doi=10.3390/en12112052|last1=Muller|first1=Richard A.|last2=Finsterle|first2=Stefan|last3=Grimsich|first3=John|last4=Baltzer|first4=Rod|last5=Muller|first5=Elizabeth A.|last6=Rector|first6=James W.|last7=Payer|first7=Joe|last8=Apps|first8=John|volume=12|issue=11|page=2052|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=The State of the Science and Technology in Deep Borehole Disposal of Nuclear Waste|date=February 14, 2020|journal=Energies|doi=10.3390/en13040833|last1=Mallants|first1=Dirk|last2=Travis|first2=Karl|last3=Chapman|first3=Neil|last4=Brady|first4=Patrick V.|last5=Griffiths|first5=Hefin|volume=13|issue=4|page=833|doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[File:Alpha-Gamma Hot Cell Facility 001.jpg|thumb|Most waste packaging, small-scale experimental fuel recycling chemistry and [[radiopharmaceutical]] refinement is conducted within remote-handled [[hot cell]]s.]]
There are no commercial scale purpose built underground high-level waste repositories in operation.<ref name="go">{{cite book |last=Gore |first=Al |url=https://archive.org/details/ourchoiceplantos00gore/page/165 |title=Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis |date=2009 |publisher=Rodale |isbn=978-1-59486-734-7 |location=Emmaus, Pennsylvania |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ourchoiceplantos00gore/page/165 165–166] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine| url= http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-nuclear-renaissance&print=true| archive-url= https://archive.today/20120915104757/http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-nuclear-renaissance&print=true| archive-date= 2012-09-15| title= A Nuclear Power Renaissance?| date= 2008-04-28| magazine= [[Scientific American]]| access-date= 2008-05-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url= http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rethinking-nuclear-fuel-recycling | title= Nuclear Fuel Recycling: More Trouble Than It's Worth | last= von Hippel | first= Frank N. | author-link= Frank N. von Hippel | date= April 2008 | magazine= Scientific American | access-date= 2008-05-15 | archive-date= 2008-11-19 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081119112436/http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rethinking-nuclear-fuel-recycling | url-status= live }}</ref> However, in Finland the [[Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository]] of the [[Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant]] was under construction as of 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/WR-Licence-granted-for-Finnish-used-fuel-repository-1211155.html|title=Licence granted for Finnish used fuel repository|date=2015-11-12|website=World Nuclear News|access-date=2018-11-18|archive-date=2015-11-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124025533/http://world-nuclear-news.org/WR-Licence-granted-for-Finnish-used-fuel-repository-1211155.html|url-status=live}}</ref>