Nuclear Power – The ethics of millennia of containment
Ethics in engineering have perhaps never been as critical as they are now, with the development of ever more powerful and consequential technologies. The proliferation of nuclear power has resulted in a growing quantity of radioactive byproducts. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), about 20 metric tonnes of used nuclear fuel waste is produced each year per facility. This waste is categorized as either low-level or high-level depending on its potential for destruction. A large percentage of the low-level waste has a relatively short half-life, and will decay to background radiation levels within 100 years. High-level fuel waste can…