Most people are familiar with nuclar power, and its potential as an energy source with known pollutants with known consequences.
Unfortunately, those consequences are pretty severe...radioactive waste doesn't become safe on a timescale human experience allows us to relate to. If the waste was dangerously radioactive when you were born, it will almost certainly be dangerously radioactive when you die.
Thus the Yucca Mountain project was born...bury the materials, and restrict access to them. While good in theory, a lot of scrutiny over time has indicated that the project may not work in practice.
So here's my idea: Bury the materials where nature will absorb them. Specifically, bury them under the ocean floor in areas where the Earth's crust is being re-absorbed into the mantle. Engineer the container so that the material will sink deep enough to not be excreted in volcanic activity.
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How deep in the earth would you have to bury nuclear waste, even in the ocean? Would any container technology today be able to withstand the pressure? It seems to me that a better alternative would be to send the nuclear waste into space, specifically into the Sun, which is already has nuclear activity and would not affect generations to come.
I'm for space as well. Pick a direction, any direction, blast it off and never think about it again. I admit that the idea of us polluting the entire universe is _conceptually_ abhorrent, but on the cosmic scale, this waste of ours is utterly infinitessimal.
Sorry for the delayed response.
There are two reasons I don't think we should pursue nuclear waste disposal in space.
First, there's too great a risk that the launch will fail, causing the dispersal of the waste into the environment. While marginal, the risk is great enough to cause some individuals and organizations to campaign against it in ways that bring attention to the nature of nuclear waste, and its potential effect on the environment.
Second, reintroduction of the nuclear material into the Earth's mantle will help keep the molten rock from solidifying.
As for concerns about the containter withstanding the pressure...it doesn't really have to. Once the container reaches a point where it will continue to sink deeper into the mantle, it doesn't matter what happens. If the material melts, so much the better. As I understand it, molten Uranium and Plutonium is much more dense than the Earth's mantle or core, and so will continue to sink.
The only disadvantage I can think of is that the material will no longer be available should we develop ways to get more energy out of "spent" nuclear fuel.
Space disposal could be viable if you used rail-launching technology, with rockets it's out of the question.
I'll double on Mikes' last though, our "spent" nuclear fuel is only 1% burned.
Recycle all uranium, transuranics and long lived fission products into new fuel and bring online molten salt reactors and fast breeders for maximum utilisation.Results: waste that will be less active than fresh uranium ore within decades rather than millennia.
Did we not learn from our mistakes in the past??? Why in the heck would we want to throw our waste into space, when this person here has a perfectly good idea about how to destroy it without really harming the environment. As far as reaching the seafloor, why not... we can do it to build bridges and what not as well as tethering offshore drilling rigs. So why not just toss the muck into the great abyss and let nature do what it does best.
Tossing the stuff into space will just cause problems down the line. Remember they thought landfills were a good idea once upon a time. "Out of sight, out of mind" isnt a good idea IMO, why not let it go "back to where it came from"???
Did we not learn from our mistakes in the past??? Why in the heck would we want to throw our waste into space, when this person here has a perfectly good idea about how to destroy it without really harming the environment. As far as reaching the seafloor, why not... we can do it to build bridges and what not as well as tethering offshore drilling rigs. So why not just toss the muck into the great abyss and let nature do what it does best.
Tossing the stuff into space will just cause problems down the line. Remember they thought landfills were a good idea once upon a time. "Out of sight, out of mind" isnt a good idea IMO, why not let it go "back to where it came from"???
putting it at the bottom of the ocean would be a sure way to create a sea monster
D:
space is the way to go...it wouldnt even have to be that expensive...just blast a copule million tons anywhere; just make sure it clears earths gravitation pull.