Nuclear power is sometimes presented as an energy source that generates little pollution. However, taking into account all the stages of nuclear power generation, from mining uranium to dealing with spent nuclear fuel and everything in between, nuclear energy produces substantial amounts and varieties of waste and environmental pollution. The failure of government and industry to properly manage, contain, isolate, and regulate toxic and radioactive substances generated throughout the nuclear fuel cycle has often had tragic consequences for human health and the environment.¹

The health and environmental damage done by uranium mining, milling, processing, and enrichment has been severe and continues. Mill tailings in many parts of the world are still leaking into the soil and contaminating groundwater. Commercial reprocessing operations continue to discharge large volumes of radioactive wastes into bodies of water from which people draw their food, as is the case with the discharges into the Irish Sea and the English Channel by the British reprocessing plants at Sellafield and by the French reprocessing plants at La Hague, respectively.

The table shows estimates of the volumes of radioactive wastes generated by nuclear power.² In addition to radioactivity, many of these wastes also contain toxic, non-radioactive materials. For instance, mill tailings contain toxic elements like arsenic and molybdenum. The table shows volumes of waste generated in the once-through low-enriched-uranium fuel cycle and the once-through mixed-oxide fuel cycle. Definitions of the various types of radioactive waste are provided below.

There are considerable uncertainties and variations in waste production and the pollution caused by nuclear power and associated operations, depending on factors such as quality of uranium ore, types of processing facilities and reactors, fuel burn-up, and prevailing regulations and efficacy of enforcement (see Special Atomic Puzzler. The estimates in the table are by Brian Chow and Gregory Jones (RAND 1999). They provide one plausible cradle-to-grave analysis of radioactive waste generation from the two types of nuclear fuel used in light water reactors.

The once-through low-enriched-uranium (LEU-OT) fuel cycle is the most common approach. All commercial nuclear reactors in the United States, and most worldwide, use a LEU-OT fuel cycle. "Low-enriched-uranium" describes the type of fuel used; "once-through" refers to fact that the spent fuel is not processed for recovery of plutonium and uranium for fabrication into new reactor fuel.

The once-through mixed-oxide (MOX-OT) fuel cycle uses mixed oxide fuel made with plutonium extracted from LEU spent fuel. The reactor core in this cycle is comprised of 30% MOX fuel; the rest is LEU fuel. After irradiation, the MOX spent fuel is slated for disposal and the LEU spent fuel is reprocessed. Presently, approximately 30 commercial nuclear power reactors in Germany, France, and Belgium are using MOX fuel.

Other technologies to manipulate spent nuclear fuel are being proposed, such as transmutation and fast reactors, which require multiple passes through reprocessing. See the main article in this issue for an analysis of these proposals.

² Emissions to the air and water are not included here other than liquid waste discharges from reprocessing.