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What is the benefit of nuclear if we are left with uncontainable highly toxic radioactive waste? There are already problems with handling waste at existing stor
by Klinky 11y ago
What is the benefit of nuclear if we are left with uncontainable highly toxic radioactive waste? There are already problems with handling waste at existing storage sties. Radioactive waste isn't a problem to be solved 10,000 years from now, it's already a problem. Even guaranteeing safe containment for 50 - 100 years seems like a difficult task, and that is not an outrageous demand for people to make.
- mikeash 11y agoHandling waste isn't that difficult of a problem. There are better reactor designs which use a lot of that waste as fuel, and what's left just needs to be sealed up real good and left to sit behind some good fences. Basically all of the real-world problems with handling nuclear waste are because anti-nuclear advocates prevent any action from being taken to handle waste, but meanwhile there are operating reactors producing waste and that hasn't stopped. So nuclear plant operators are forced into ad-hoc solutions for waste disposal because nobody will let them do it right.
- Klinky 11y agoYou're simply hand waiving away the problems. Even reprocessing creates waste that must be dealt with. Commercial fast/breeder reactors are always ten years away, and it has yet to be proven that they could even be economically viable.