If all power in the USA came from conventional nuclear reactors, each American would be responsible for generating 40 grams of nuclear waste per year. That’s the same as 7 US quarters weigh. If breeder reactors were used, it could be as low as 4 grams. For comparison, each American is currently responsible for about 10,000 kg of carbon emissions directly into the atmosphere from electric plants per year, not to mention particulates and many toxins. Nuclear waste, on the other hand stays out of the biosphere.

If we took all the nuclear waste that was sitting around in the US today from the past 50 years of running reactors and recycled it, we could use it to power the entire USA for about 93 years without mining anything else.