Nuclear Waste

After the fuel in the nuclear reactor has been there for about 18 months much of the uranium has left it, and much of the fission built up in the solution. Then the reactor is refueled by putting back in 1/3 of the fuel rods. Fuel rods are a great build up of highly radioactive waste left over from the nuclear reactor. The rods are then placed in huge pools and left to cool down, the longer they rest the highly reactive isotopes die and the rods become cool. After the rods are processed to remove and plutonium or uranium that still remains. This process take about two months, but most of the buyers of nuclear energy are coming up with faster ways to refuel. For example in Louisiana the operator of American nuclear power plants has brought the time down to 17 days. But at the end there is still waste left over, which the US sotres in Nevada. source http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/nuclear-faq.html