the nuclear debate - Nuclear waste can be made 'safe'

Nuclear waste can be made safe

You can make it ‘safer’ by enclosing it in a lead container, then burying it, but you cannot make it safe. Such a technique only removes radiation from alpha and beta particles which cannot go very far, but some gamma radiation particles, which can pass through almost everything, will escape. This is fine, as there is background radiation regardless, but if the box corrodes away, then we start having problems.

Also, radiation is affecting fish in rivers and streams where such boxes are already buried, which make them unsuitable for human consumption.