Over a lifetime, the average American's nuclear power usage creates a hockey puck of nuclear waste

As of 2024, there are 90,000 tons of nuclear waste stored at 100+ sites in 39 states

Over 315,000 bundles of spent nuclear fuel rods are stored in water pools and over 3,800 dry storage casks in concrete vaults above ground. Corrosion from saltwater spray threatens waste containers of reactors near oceans.

For decades, the US has considered building a permanent nuclear waste repository

All nuclear waste would have been stored at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, but the Obama administration indefinitely stalled the project after intense community backlash. Spent fuel is now stored at more than 80 locations in 36 states, raising safety concerns.

Radioactive waste solutions include glass smelting and dumping into graphite blocks

Since radioactive materials can take seconds to millions of years to decay, their disposal or storage requires creative solutions. Besides turning liquid waste into glass or storing medical waste in lead-lined rooms, spent nuclear rods are stored in deep-water pools.

Nuclear power supplies almost half of US carbon-free energy

As of 2023, nearly 20% of US electricity comes from nuclear power, but most reactors were built from 1971 to 1990. Expansion slowed due to safety concerns, high costs, and competition from natural gas.

Uranium's ability to split easily makes it the most common catalyst for nuclear power

Uranium is commonly found in rocks, water, and soil worldwide, but significant industrial processes are needed to process and enrich it for efficient reactor usage. After being irradiated in reactors, it must be cooled down before disposal.

Water acts as a coolant and a moderator of nuclear reactions in reactors

Nuclear reactions within a containment structure boil water into steam, which drives a turbine that generates electricity. This water is then recirculated via pumps back into the containment structure to repeat the process, with reaction rates lowered by the insertion of control rods that absorb neutrons, which trigger reactions.

A breakdown of nuclear fusion and what is impeding this near-limitless clean-energy resource

While today's nuclear reactors rely on fission, which releases energy by splitting heavy atoms, nuclear fusion releases energy by combining atoms together to form more massive ones. Fusion involves overcoming repulsive forces between the centers, or nuclei, of atoms, and, as of 2026, overcoming this repulsion takes more energy than is produced.

Nuclear batteries generate electrical currents using radioactive materials

Rather than using electrochemical reactions to produce the electrons that flow through a circuit, isotopes like nickel-63 undergo beta decay—emitting electrons—which a semiconducting material can absorb to establish a charge imbalance that generates current. Such batteries could provide low-power energy for decades.

The 'Elephant's Foot' in Chernobyl is part of the largest documented mass of corium

The nuclear disaster produced around 200 tons of nuclear fuel that mixed with the surrounding melted reactor core materials. As of 2025, corium has been naturally formed four other times in history: once during the Three Mile Island accident and three times at the Fukushima Daiichi plant disaster.

Turning nuclear waste into cancer medications

This video explores Terrapower, a company transforming nuclear waste into lifesaving cancer treatments. This is accomplished through the production and use of Actinium 225, a rare isotope derived from thorium, which is used in targeted alpha therapy to treat cancer.

View a list of the worst nuclear meltdowns before 2013

Nuclear meltdowns occur when a reactor overheats and radioactive materials leach into the surrounding environment. While rare, the reasons for each occurrence—as detailed in this piece—can help establish new safety protocols for future reactors.

The North American waste management market was worth $208B in 2019

Burning waste to generate energy is a $10B industry in the US alone. A growing number of major companies—including Amazon, Subaru, and American Airlines—are pursuing "zero landfill" sustainability goals.

The continuous decay of radioactive elements regenerates geothermal energy reserves

Geothermal power is a renewable energy source derived from Earth's interior, where the core reaches temperatures exceeding 5,000 degrees Celsius (9,000 degrees Fahrenheit). These temperatures result from leftover energy from collisions during planetary formation, with radioactive decay in the core releasing additional energy that travels to the surface.

Mining of rare earth elements risks leaking radioactive wastewater

The extraction and processing of REEs requires significant amounts of water, and poorly regulated projects can contaminate groundwater with acids and heavy metals. Toxic waste spills have paused work in several US mines since the 1980s, despite growing REE demand.

AI's growing energy demands are driving tech companies to consider nuclear power

Big Tech has rebranded nuclear power as a green solution to address the strain on the grid from millions of people using power-hungry AI tools. As of mid-2025, generating one image uses as much electricity as charging the average smartphone, or leaving a household light bulb on for 87 consecutive days.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Small modular reactors can provide nuclear power with reduced risks and logistics

Their factory-built design allows them to be quickly installed underground, reducing their exposure to future extreme weather. They can provide power to small towns and major cities with much smaller start-up costs and reduced siting requirements.

A primer on the president's nuclear football

During the Cold War, the United States and the USSR were forced to prepare for a nuclear strike at a moment's notice, leading to a new innovation: the so-called "football" (known as the chemodanchik in Russia), a bag containing nuclear strike plans, authentication codes, and likely a communication device, which attended the country's leader wherever they went. This easy-to-read piece breaks down the history and lore around the high-stakes quirk in nuclear governance.

The Chernobyl disaster released more radioactive material than the Hiroshima bomb

A reactor explosion during a safety test resulted in a series of evacuations and resettlements that displaced over 300,000 people and left areas uninhabitable for up to 20,000 years. The Soviet government initially tried to hide the disaster, but rising radiation levels were identified by detectors in Sweden.

Items in the Curie Museum do not produce significant radioactivity today

Ionizing radiation produced by elements such as uranium, polonium, and radium can damage living things, but the trace amounts found in the museum objects that Marie Curie once touched have been largely decontaminated, with more dangerous items stored in protective, lead-lined containers.

The story of the Manhattan Project's unused demon core

A 3-inch, 14-pound sphere of nuclear reactive plutonium-gallium was set to be delivered to the Pacific Theater in 1945 to become the third atomic bomb dropped over Japan. When Japan surrendered, it was returned to Los Alamos in New Mexico for experiment, where two scientists would die testing whether the core could reach criticality—where it would release intense energy—via the use of a dense reflector. Watch the story here.

Nuclear weapons in WWII

This 14-minute interactive documentary broaches the subject of the human cost of nuclear warfare. Comparing the number of deaths during World War II with the projected deaths of a nuclear exchange, the video can be paused to delve deeper into individual statistics, historical tidbits, and more data that shows the terrible price humanity would pay.

What the people on the front lines think about America's recycling crisis

America produces more waste per capita than any other country in the world. And recycling, which was once considered the solution to that problem, isn’t really working anymore.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Calculate your estimated yearly dose of ionizing radiation

This calculator from the EPA provides a value in millirems—the US unit for effective dose—based on a variety of exposure parameters, including the state a user lives in and travel-related sources of ionizing radiation, such as passing through screening machines.

What happens to golf balls after they're used?

With over 1 billion golf balls produced annually, an estimated 300 million to 1.5 billion are lost worldwide. On average, thousands of balls are left behind on each course, often ending up in ponds, forests, and beaches. While many golf courses recover and reuse some of these balls, studies suggest countless remain unretrieved.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Urushiol, the oily toxin in poison ivy, can remain allergenic on clothing for years.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.