Radioactive waste disposal has become one of the key environmental battlegrounds over which the future of nuclear power has been fought. Environmentalists argue that no system of waste disposal can be absolutely safe, either now or in the future. Governments and the nuclear industry have tried to find acceptable solutions. But in countries where popular opinion is taken into consideration, no mutually acceptable solution has been found. As a result, most spent fuel has been stored in the nuclear power plants where it was produced. This is now causing its own problems as storage ponds designed to store a few years’ waste become filled or overflowing. One avenue that has been explored is the reprocessing of spent fuel to remove the active ingredients. Some of the recovered material can be recycled as fuel. The remainder must be stored safely until it has become inactive. But reprocessing has proved expensive and can exacerbate the problem of disposal rather than assisting it. As a result, it too appears publicly unacceptable.
* exacerbate: 악화시키다