FAQs

14. How long is the waste active and dangerous for?

The amount of radioactivity given off by a radioactive substance will gradually decrease. This is called radioactive decay. The time it takes for the radioactivity to decrease by 50% is called the half-life. Different radioactive atoms have different half-lives: some can be a matter of seconds; some can be many thousands of years. So the amount of radioactivity will reduce as time goes on, but for some atoms this will take millions of years.

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