The waste from nuclear plants remains radioactive for thousands of years. Where do you want to put it? How about in a landfill near your hometown?
The nuclear waste is deadly for thousands of years.
I have an 8 pound piece of depleted Uranium sitting in my desk.
The half life of the main constituent U238 is 4.46E9 years.
4,460,000,000 years!
The Small amount of U235 with a half life of 7.04E8 years.
704,000,000 years.
It is NOT a significant hazard as anything but a heavy metal poison unless you grind it into a powder and then breathe the dust.
The very LONG half life isotopes are NOT a hazard.
They may last millions of years, but the rate of breakdown is VERY low.
The very short half life items produce a prompt hazard.
The things that are intermediate, 1-20 years are the hazard.
They produce enough radiation to cause issues with long term exposure.
The ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) method is used dealing with radiation, coupled with strict limits on total annual exposure.
I test electronic devices at cyclotrons, and we routinely ‘activate’ targets (most often with proton testing).
The lead and copper in PC boards are the main things that get activated since they are dense enough to stop an appreciable number of protons.
Half lives are often in the couple minute to hour range though, and after 24-48 hours we can normally ship the targets back to out office since they are no longer radioactive.
Even when fuel rods ARE re-processed they are allowed to cool for a couple YEARS to reduce the hazard from the short lived isotopes.
While the long half lives SOUND dangerous they are NOT.