Used Fuel

Used nuclear fuel is a solid material safely stored at nuclear plant sites. This storage is only temporary - one component of an integrated used fuel management system that addresses all facets of storing, recycling and disposal.

Currently, used nuclear fuel is stored at the nation's nuclear power plants in steel-lined, concrete vaults filled with water or in massive, airtight stainless steel canisters enclosed in concrete-and-steel casks.

In these used-fuel pools, the water acts as a natural barrier for radiation from the fuel assemblies. The water also keeps the fuel cool while the fuel decays and becomes less radioactive. The water itself never leaves the inside of the plant's concrete building. Plants Hatch, Vogtle, and Farley have spent-fuel pools.

Since 1986, more than two dozen U.S. plants have supplemented their storage capacity by building above-ground, dry storage facilities. Plants Hatch and Farley have dry storage facilities. Dry storage is not currently planned for Plant Vogtle until well into the next decade.

In 2002, Congress approved Yucca Mountain, Nev., a remote desert location, as the site for a centralized deep geologic repository for used nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste.

The federal government made a statutory and contractual commitment to the nation's electricity consumers in 1982 to remove used nuclear fuel from nuclear plant sites.

In June 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy filed a license application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build a federal repository at Yucca Mountain for used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

The U.S. Department of Energy will transport used nuclear fuel to the repository by rail and road, inside massive, sealed containers that have undergone safety and durability testing.

Low-level waste is a byproduct of the beneficial uses of a wide range of radioactive materials. These include electricity generation, medical diagnosis and treatment, and various other medical processes.