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Researchers use uranium 235, an isotope of uranium, in many nuclear reactors. The uranium comes to the reactor in small pellets. Those pellets then go into fuel rods. After the reaction, the leftover material is very radioactive. Scientists cool the uranium and plutonium for one year in a big pool of water.
After enough time has gone by, and the radioactive materials have cooled down, officials have to bury the nuclear waste deep underground. They bury them so that the radioactivity will not contaminate the surrounding water or land. When biological substances become irradiated by very powerful radiation, they can no longer survive. The result is something called radiation poisoning. 
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