Wastes from fossil and nuclear fuels

The purpose of this paper is to develop a perspective of what the United States reasonably can expect in terms of wastes from coal- and nuclear-fired power plants. Only power plant operations are compared to the end of the century. To do so, it is assumed that no major technological breakthrough will significantly affect the way mass quantities of electricity are to be generated to the end of this century. This is considered a reasonable assumption since society's inertia and momenta are not likely to change in 24 short years. Unlike the debate on the health risks of nuclear energy, where agreement cannot be reached because estimates of things that have not happened must be used, this examines things that can be weighed, seen, and otherwise perceived. Although numbers used and projections made are based on historical data and attempts to be accurate were made, figures developed could be off by an order of magnitude and more, without affecting the general conclusions