Wikipedia has this to say:

Since radioactive decay follows the half-life rule, the rate of decay is inversely proportional to the duration of decay. In other words, the radiation from a long-lived isotope like iodine-129 will be much less intense than that of a short-lived isotope like iodine-131.¹

So my understanding is radioactive products are dangerous because body takes up the elements and they're either chemically toxic, dangerous because of radioactive decay, or both.

So isn't this solved by vitrifying the waste and burying it? Glasses tend to be extremely chemically inert.

I'm not convinced the spectre of nuclear waste warrants the paranoia it receives.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste#Physics

What a long halflife does is increase the time until that steady state is reached. If we operate a nuclear economy for a million years then a hell of a lot of that long lived isotope will have accumulated.

We could use these reactors to eat the nuclear waste we have right now.