Reference no: EM131161942

The central problem of the production of energy by creating nuclear reactions is one of storage. Presently, power companies store spent fuel rods at reactor sites for ten years to allow the short-lived isotopes to decay. Long-lived isotopes, however, continue to present severe environmental hazards for periods extending into the hundreds of thousands of years. Current plans for the disposal of nuclear waste include the incorporation of radioactive atoms into stable glasses, surrounding these with successive layers of concrete and steel and burying these a kilometer underground within geologically stable formations. Are these elaborate measures appropriate? What is the responsibility of one generation to the next regarding the disposal of nuclear waste?