radioactive waste

noun

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

radioactive waste

noun

1. Also called: nuclear waste. any waste material containing radionuclides

radioactive waste

1. 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.

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of radioactive waste¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

To address concerns about the safety of nuclear power and radioactive waste, Oregon lawmakers created the Nuclear and Thermal Energy Council.

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In China, environmental damage from years of processing rare earths has led to chemicals and radioactive waste seeping into waterways - cities and people bearing the scars of decades of poor regulation.

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The files said one incident, in August 2019, resulted in the release of "unnecessary radioactive waste" in the form of low levels of tritium, which is used in nuclear warheads.

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Scientists from the government advisory group recently said the issue of how radioactive waste from SMRs that are in the design stage "appears, with some exceptions... to have been largely ignored or at least downplayed".

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

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