Nuclear wastes are usually characterized by their physical and chemical properties and their source of origin.
The major source of high-level waste, which contains large amounts of radioisotopes, is the spent fuel from nuclear power reactors. The reprocessing of fuel from civilian nuclear plants, which has not yet established a reprocessing programme. The spent fuel from military reactors is reprocessed, and the residues of this treatment are also high-level wastes.

            The final waste category is called transuranic waste, which includes materials contaminated with man-made radioisotopes created by transmutation of uranium. The most common transuranic is plutonium. The amounts of radioactivity are usually small, but the transuranics emit alpha particles which are particularly hazardous to human tissue. The greatest concern is that transuranic material might be inhaled and lodge in the lungs where it could do great damage.

            The total amount of low-level waste generated at a single, large, nuclear-power plant is about 1,000 cubic meters (1,300 cubic yards) each year. The total volume of nuclear-industry waste generated annually is about 100,000 cubic meters (130,000 cubic yards). Other activities, particularly medical, generate about the same volume each year. Much effort is under way to find means to reduce the volume, either by compaction or by incineration.

            A large nuclear reactor discharges about 30 metric tons (33 U. S. tons) of spent fuel each year. The volume of the waste is about 12 cubic meters (15.7 cubic yards), approximately the volume of a standard-size automobile.
 

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