3 ms·

nuclear is much cleaner then anything else... the waste is only less radioactive then the fuel. What is your better alternative that doesn't create any waste?

• MertsA 8y ago
  The waste is many orders of magnitude more radioactive than the fuel. The fuel itself is fissile, meaning it can split when hit with a neutron. Radioactivity is a measure of how often an isotope will spontaneously split on its own. The fresh fuel gives off very little radiation and it can be handled with nothing more than a pair of latex gloves, and the gloves are only necessary to keep the handler's greasy grubby mitts off of the expensive and highly clean and pure fuel bundle. The spent fuel is so radioactive that it has to be stored underwater for at least 3 years and commonly up to 10 because the radiation is enough to heat up the fuel to unsafe temperatures before that time. Nuclear is much cleaner than fossil fuels though, you're right about that, natural gas has some radon mixed in that just gets vented to the atmosphere and coal ash that makes it past whatever filtering system the power plant uses releases far more radiation than nuclear plants could during normal operation.