The majority of thermal power plants burn fossil fuels because thermal power plants are cheaper to maintain and have to meet less of the governments requirements compared to nuclear power plants. Fossil fuels are coal and oil. The downfall of using fossil fuels is that they are limited. Fossil fuels are developed from the remains of plants and animals that died millions of years ago. Burning fossil fuels has other downfalls, too. All the burning that is required to turn the turbines releases much sulfur, nitrogen gases, and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

The cleanest, cheapest, and least polluting power plant of the two types is the hydroelectric power plant. The main reason most countries use thermal versus the hydroelectric is because their countries don't have enough concentrated water to create enough energy to generate electricity. (World Book vol. 14, 586)

Reprocessing is the chemical process by which uranium and plutonium are recovered from spent fuel. This means that it is the recycling process of high-level waste. The reason private industries aren't reprocessing their high-level waste is because reprocessing costs more than mining and making new fuel. Several countries that actually care about their environment reprocess their high-level waste. (General Information)

According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, a repository may pose no greater threat than unmined uranium from which the high-level waste was produced.

To make sure that the repository would be able to stay unscathed for thousands of years, scientists in all areas of science are making predictions of what could happen over the time period.

The name of the "safe place" that the Department of Energy is trying to make is called a repository. But until a repository is made, spent fuel and high-level waste is being stored in temporary storage facilities called dry casks and cooling pools. By the end of the year 2000, there will be more than 40,000 metric tons of high-level waste in casks and storage pools. There will also be more than 8,000 metric tons of high-level waste from defense programs. The high-level waste from defense programs is currently being stored in Idaho, South Carolina, and Washington. (General Information)

INFOPEDIA. Vers. 1.5. Computer software. Future Vision Multimedia, 1995. IBM Windows 3.1, 30KB, CD-ROM.

High-level radioactive waste is the by-product of commercial nuclear power plants generating electricity, and from nuclear materials production at defense facilities. This high-level waste must be isolated in a safe place for thousands of years so its radioactivity can die down and not be harmful to people and the environment.

Some common words found in the essay are:
World Book, Information Dry, Nuclear Power, Agency EPA, Mountain Studies, INFOPEDIA Radioactive, Department Energy, Information Reprocessing, Information High-level, power plants, nuclear power, high-level waste, cooling pools, spent fuel, nuclear power plants, power plant, world book, INFOPEDIA Vers, fossil fuels, casks cooling pools, dry casks, casks cooling, dry casks cooling, world book vol, thermal power plants,
Approximate Word count = 1428
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)