Spent fuel is only “waste” because of the politics in the USA. The advanced nuclear powers reprocess spent fuel into more fuel as 96% of spend fuel is still fuel. What remains as fission products all but three have half lives under 100 years and will ne back to background radiation levels in under 1000 years or less depending on the burn up level and reactors spectrum. The actinidies elements heavier than uranium which are created by neutron capture have very long half lives fortunately every one of those is excellent fuel for a fast spectrum reactor. Do I qualify as sciency with three master’s and a PhD all in hard sciences none of that MA or applied sciences junk.
Thanks for the info. Yes, very sciencey indeed.