TENORM is not regulated as restrictively as nuclear reactor waste, though there are no significant differences in the radiological risks of these materials.
The radioactive material found in the rock fault was radium 226, a naturally occurring isotope in wide commercial use and also found in nuclear reactor waste.
During a dumping operation in 1984, Lepse encountered very rough seas, and high-level reactor waste mixed with water was splashed all over the inside of the cargo compartment.
The radioactivity could have been lessened more quickly by stimulated nuclear transitions, as was done with the usual reactor wastes, but the lunar authorities were against that idea.
LFTRs can dramatically reduce the long-term radiotoxicity of their reactor wastes.
Transuranics like Pu-239 cause the perception that reactor wastes are an eternal problem.
It is also used to reduce metal salts and oxides to the pure metals in electroless nickel plating and plutonium extraction from nuclear reactor waste.
The uranium, which is not highly radioactive, could be converted into a form useful for wrapping highly radioactive substances like reactor waste.
However, the NRC is no longer considering the Yucca Mountain site an option for storing reactor waste.
In addition there are the problems connected with the disposal of spent reactor waste.