RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS DECAY OVER THOUSANDS OF YEARS MAKING NUCLEAR RADIATION ALONG TERM HEALTH RISK James Flynn, Roger Kasperson, Howard Knureuther, and Paul Slovic 1992 (senior researcher with Decision Research, prof of govt and geography and associate of CENTED at Clark University Prof of decision sciences insurance, public policy, and management and the Director of Risk and Decision Process Center at the Wharton School @ Upenn; president of Decision research and prof of psychology at the University of Oregon "Time to RethinkNuclear Waste Storage" Issues in Science and Technology Vol 8 No 4, pg. 43 High-level radioactive waste includes IWO major components spent fuel from reactors at nuclear power plants and the various byproducts of nuclear weapons production. Although spent fuel accounts for less than one percent of the volume of all the high- and low level radioactive Wastes generated in the United States. it produces 95 percent of the radioactivity Some of its radioisotopes pose grave dangers for hundreds, even thousands of years. For instance. the half- life (the time required for half the original radioactivity to decay) of plutonium is 24,400 years.
