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radioactive waste

noun

the radioactive by-products from the operation of a nuclear reactor or from the reprocessing of depleted nuclear fuel.

radioactive waste

noun

any waste material containing radionuclides Also callednuclear waste

radioactive waste

Radioactive materials that may be left after a commercial or laboratory process has been carried out. Some is “low-level” waste, such as objects that have touched the radioactive tracers used in certain medical tests. Other waste may be “high-level,” such as the material left in a nuclear reactor after the fuel has been consumed.

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Notes

There has been public debate over the safest means of storing the waste, which can remain dangerously radioactive for up to hundreds of thousands of years. Present practice calls for encasing the waste in metal, concrete, and ceramic containers and burying the containers deep underground in geologically stable locations.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of radioactive waste¹

First recorded in 1945–50

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Further research has since uncovered that this part of the ocean had also served as a dumping ground for military munitions and radioactive waste.

From

Concerns over safety, cost, and what to do with radioactive waste had sapped enthusiasm for a technology once seen as a revolutionary source of abundant cheap energy.

From

Critics have also expressed concern about radioactive waste nuclear reactors leave behind for future generations.

From

However, critics say nuclear power is not risk-free and produces long-lasting radioactive waste.

From

The reaction creates helium and not the long-lived radioactive waste of the fission process which is used in existing nuclear power stations.

From

radioactive tracer radioactivity

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