The country most affected by nuclear waste is difficult to pinpoint as "affected" can refer to several different metrics, including the volume of waste generated, major historical accidents, or the long-term impact on a region. However, some countries stand out due to specific, severe impacts:
As you might expect, many people wonder which is the most radioactive place on Earth. According to the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) ranking, Chernobyl in Ukraine, Fukushima in Japan and Mayak in Russia are considered the most radioactive places on Earth due to human activities.
The United States is the largest producer of nuclear power, while France has the largest share of electricity generated by nuclear power, at about 65%. Some countries operated nuclear reactors in the past but currently have no operating nuclear power plants.
The United States tops the list with 97 GW across 94 reactors. France ranks second at 63 GW, a result of its historic policy to standardize and scale nuclear after the 1970s oil shocks. China follows at 55 GW. Russia (27 GW) and South Korea (26 GW) round out the top five.
Of that total generation: - Roughly **60 %** came from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum) in 2023. - The remainder came from nuclear (~19 %) and renewables (~21 %). Often people reference “70 %” when discussing combined fossil fuels and other sources, or as a rounded figure for fossil fuels plus nuclear.
All U.S. nuclear power plants store spent nuclear fuel in "spent fuel pools." These pools are made of reinforced concrete several feet thick, with steel liners. The water is typically about 40 feet deep and serves both to shield the radiation and cool the rods.
High-level and medium-level long-lived waste
They generate heat and are therefore stored in deactivation pools or in ventilated facilities. In France, the La Hague site and the Marcoule nuclear site host this waste. A "selective separation" process is carried out at the La Hague plant.
So, for the first step in the nuclear fuel cycle, the US must rely on imports of uranium from countries such as Canada and Australia. For some time the country's reactors also used downblended weapons-grade uranium from Russia (see section on Military surplus and other government stocks below).
China is quickly becoming the global leader in nuclear power, with nearly as many reactors under construction as the rest of the world combined. While its dominance of solar panels and electric vehicles is well known, China is also building nuclear plants at an extraordinary pace.
Yes, Chernobyl is still highly radioactive in many areas, especially near the damaged reactor, but radiation levels vary significantly; some parts of the exclusion zone have contamination low enough for potential limited agriculture, while a 2025 drone strike damaged the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure, raising concerns about long-term containment, although immediate levels stayed stable as the NSC's function is to contain the original sarcophagus's radioactive material, not the entire zone.
22 years after the event, the radiation level in the reactor hall has been measured to 34 Sv/h (The Chernobyl Gallery), so 340 million bananas every hour - or 47.6 kt. A bit more than one tenth of the original number.
By far the largest source of natural radiation exposure comes from varying amounts of uranium and thorium in the soil around the world.
In 1977, the President decided to indefinitely defer commercial nuclear spent fuel reprocessing in the United States because of the risks of nuclear technology and/or materials being diverted from such plants.
Its motivations included: a distrust of technocracy; ecological, environmental and safety fears; suspicions that nuclear energy could engender nuclear proliferation; and general opposition to concentrated power (especially after its extreme consolidation under the Nazi dictatorship).
Russia and the United States together possess nearly 90% of the world's nuclear weapons, with Russia holding the largest total stockpile and the U.S. having a substantial number of deployed strategic warheads, making them the dominant nuclear powers by far, despite other nations like China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea also having nuclear arsenals.
Australia is estimated to have the largest reserves, followed by Kazakhstan, Canada and Russia. Notes: Historical production for the Czech Republic includes 102,241 tonnes of uranium produced in former Czechoslovakia from 1946 through the end of 1992.
Health and environmental issues. The radiation hazards of uranium mining and milling were not appreciated in the early years, resulting in workers being exposed to high levels of radiation. Inhalation of radon gas caused sharp increases in lung cancers among underground uranium miners employed in the 1940s and 1950s.
The United States continues to import low-enriched uranium from Russia, which is a key feedstock for producing nuclear reactor fuel. This trade takes place despite mutual restrictions: a US import embargo (in force since May 2024) and a Russian export ban (since November 2024).
Australia's only facility producing and storing radioactive material is managed by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation at Lucas Heights.
Sub-surface Disposal
Relatively high-level radioactive wastes are disposed of at a depth of 50–100 meters below the surface of the ground, while maintaining enough distance from general underground use.
Since 2005, reprocessing of spent fuel has been prohibited. Only the direct disposal of the spent fuel that exists and will be generated in future in Germany as radioactive waste is permissible. Spent fuel assemblies are to be disposed of together with heat-generating radioactive waste from reprocessing.
In Canada, all used nuclear fuel is stored at the site where it was produced, with the following exceptions: small quantities of used nuclear fuel that are transported to research facilities for experimental or examination purposes and stored at those facilities.
Although no high-level radioactive waste (HLW) has been disposed of into the sea, variable amounts of packaged low-level radioactive waste (LLW) have been dumped at more than 50 sites in the northern part of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The Russian navy has traditionally dealt with virtually all of its radioactive wastes by disposal to sea. Many areas of the Barents, Kola and the Sea of Japan are heavily contaminated. To deal with radioactive wastes 34 large and 257 small disposal sites are available.