1 kg of radioactive isotopes blasted into the atmosphere as a byproduct of coal combustion: i sleep
1 ton of PTFEs blasted into the water table as a byproduct of making slick cooking pans: i sleep
untold tons of carcinogens dumped out the exhaust of automobiles within our cities: i sleep
1 kg of nuclear waste safely sealed in a bright yellow barrel: i scream and kick and seethe
If you think nuclear waste is the biggest challenge we face as a species regarding waste management, your stance is profoundly misinformed and inconsistent. The only reason we’re talking about it is that it has “nuclear” in the name and it is highly visible because we capture it all, which is ironically the one thing that makes it safer than all the other pollutants out there.
Diluting it with stone or whatever and putting it in a deep sea trench so it gets back in the geological cycle as soon as possible, is not an option?
“Geological cycle” I always thought was measured in millions of years, when the waste has a half-life of 1000 years to 10 million years…
So much could happen in 1000 years…and it would barely make a difference for anything below 1My.
Oh, right. Still, it would be out of human reach there and a block of stone with finely distributed Uran doesn’t do much to that bit of wildlife in a trench.
Send it to any third world nation. /s
Recycle and reuse!
Did I hear the concept of “slow violence?” Going once! Going twice!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transmutation
Maybe we should do more research on turning these hazardous products into safer, more stable substances. I’m no nuclear engineer, but it looks like the primary method is bombarding the isotopes with neutrons. How much energy does that take compared to the energy generated by the reactor?
bombarding the isotopes with neutrons
There’s a word for that: a nuclear reactor!
You may be interested in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor
A reactor whose main purpose is to destroy actinides rather than increasing fissile fuel-stocks is sometimes known as a burner reactor. Both breeding and burning depend on good neutron economy, and many designs can do either. Breeding designs surround the core by a breeding blanket of fertile material. Waste burners surround the core with non-fertile wastes to be destroyed. Some designs add neutron reflectors or absorbers.
Fusion power, if ever realized, also has a high neutron flux at a high neutron temperature, though it faces the same issue of “in the short term, it’s more expensive than just storing waste in a hole”
It’s a good goal, but last I heard we were very far off from that being economical compared to just throwing it in a hole forever (which is honestly pretty expensive).
If the problem is economic in nature then the solution is to change the system of economics until it fits material reality, not wait until material reality can fit into our arbitrary system of economics. I’m so sick of “economically viable” being the limiting factor to societal progress.
Man, shit gets really expensive sometimes. We can wish with all of our hearts that medicine, chemistry, physics, etc. get more viable, but that isn’t how it works.
Things are only “expensive” because of our arbitrarily designed system of economics. Money is fake. We can change the rules to fit material reality.
We don’t need the science to become viable, we need to change our rules of society to make the science accessible.
Not all things are expensive on a whim. Some things just use massive amounts of material, energy and work hours to be produced. I cannot just stop paying miners their already too low wages. I also cannot take energy for free. It is not like we have all minerals and energy in abundance and have automated the crap out of every production chain.
maybe nuclear energy isnt part of sociatal progress.
Don’t see any reasons why it can’t and plenty of reasons why it should.
Too expensive and thus a too heavy burden on society while much cheaper alternatives exist.
Eat it. Lots of calories.
This was my first thought. My second was stick it in their butt.
Ski-dap ba-dap, butthole
Put it in a capsule that could survive re-entry into earth just in case, then launch it into the sun.
Do you want evil Superman? Cause that’s how you get evil Superman.
Serious answer: That would take more effort and energy than just dealing with it on earth by many orders of magnitude. It’s even harder to launch into the sun than it is to launch it outside the solar system (which is also infeasible of course)
That would take more effort and energy than just dealing with it on earth by many orders of magnitude. It’s even harder to launch into the sun than it is to launch it outside the solar system (which is also infeasible of course)
Yep, it would be a wealth sink that drastically advances science and pays off later.
Just like going to the moon was an excuse to develop ICBM technology, that also paid off with a shit ton of unexpected scientific advancement.
Going to the moon adapted ICBM technology, but it wasn’t intended to further ICBM development. It was simply the last chance for America to save face having been roundly spanked at every step of the space race with the USSR.
The space race at large was all a cover for weapons development…
It was two super powers on either side of the globe competing to show they could hit the other in the dick from that far away.
Absolutely no one in either government who controlled funding ever gave a fuck about the science for science sake, or even PR.
Shooting nuclear waste into the sun is a much saner reason that comes with all the bonuses. But obviously it’s for an ideal society after we solve wealth inequality so we can pay for it and actually use the developments for science and not killing each other.
The risk from launching nuclear waste in the sun is so much worse than the risk of burying it
We have so little high level nuclear waste it’s actually crazy to think about
Like all of the dry casks we made in the history of commercial nuclear power could fit on a single football field
Dig big hole bury waste, no step 3
I mean, the way we got rid of our military reactor “waste” for decades was selling it to the French, who refined it for their reactors…
Real waste that’s an issue is radioactively contaminated steal and the like, we can’t use any of that juice, but we can keep refining fuel forever if we wanted to.
It’s just a big heavy object, and we need big heavy payloads and an excuse to launch them. So let’s take all that real waste and launch it at the sun for the fuck of it.
It also has a decent chance of a rocket failure spreading radiation throughout the upper atmosphere in exactly the way we’ve figured out you shouldn’t do.
Logical next step, build all the nuclear reactors in space?
The problem with that is getting the energy down to earth. Also what to do with the excess heat, because you don’t have an environment to cool it.
