Does unmined uranium still produce 'nuclear waste'?

Natural uranium decays in something called the Radium series (U-238) and the Actinium series (U-235). You'll see at the end of these chains, Pb. This is lead. It is the end of the line - so basically all Uranium-238 will eventually become lead. read more

I have read that it is technically true that if the uranium were left in the ground, the public would receive a larger dose from the radon that seeps up to the atmosphere than they would from the mining, use in a power plant, and disposal of the uranium as fuel. read more

98% of typical nuclear waste is Uranium/Plutonium/Np/Am/Cu which are still fissile or fertile. The rest of nuclear waste is radioactive for some time, that radioactivity gives heat, which could be used to power RTG for space exploration probes. read more

Recycling nuclear waste. As mentioned previously, nuclear waste is over 90% uranium. Thus, the spent fuel (waste) still contains 90% usable fuel! It can be chemically processed and placed in advanced fast reactors (which have not been deployed on any major scale yet) to close the fuel cycle. read more