3 ms·

I wish this bogus eye watering bullshit will just stop. I'm as big a fan of dystopian future planet hell as the next guy, but it will not involve "nuclear waste

I wish this bogus eye watering bullshit will just stop. I'm as big a fan of dystopian future planet hell as the next guy, but it will not involve "nuclear waste" in any shape or form. Nuclear war, sure, fallout yes. But waste, no. There is no such thing as nuclear waste. If ever there was fake news, and a dead horse whipped to the bone....

gumby 9y ago
Care to expand? I am not convinced of planetary-scale ecosystem restructuring due to nuclear waste, but certainly leaks of such waste could poison large areas for quite some time. (I prefer to call it ecosystem "restructuring" rather than "destruction" because clearly under almost every possible scenario some organisms would prosper. The term "destruction" only makes sense if you suppors a selfish view that the ecosystem is designed to be congenial to humans, and anything else is "wrong". It is interesting to speculate if the sentient cockroaches of 100 megayears hence would detect any traces of us).
- ageofwant 9y ago
  Because that 'waste' is fuel for 4th generation breeder reactors and will be used as such. The result of that process is low grade waste that you can dump a meter of topsoil on and build a park or kindergarten on top of. Guarapari beach is more radioactive. There is no such thing as nuclear waste.
  - AnonymousPlanet 9y ago
    Maybe you should talk to some actual nuclear engineers and not just read starry eyed proposals. The engineering tasks of building and maintainig said reactors plus digging up the waste and shipping it there is tremendous. Especially sodium cooled proposals get the most face palms from people who actually work in the field. "There's a reason psysicists don't design reactors but engineers do" is a quote I remember from the last time I met a nuclear engineer and discussed transmutation proposals. Bottom line: Nothing is solved and it will take decades to get to a design that consumes new waste, let alone old waste that is currently rotting under ground and is ever harder to get to.
    - DennisP 9y ago
      Russia seems pretty happy with their sodium-cooled reactors, they have two in commercial operation and are building more.
pjc50 9y ago
There are a lot more things than simply spent fuel that end up as nuclear waste.

gumby 9y ago

Care to expand? I am not convinced of planetary-scale ecosystem restructuring due to nuclear waste, but certainly leaks of such waste could poison large areas for quite some time. (I prefer to call it ecosystem "restructuring" rather than "destruction" because clearly under almost every possible scenario some organisms would prosper. The term "destruction" only makes sense if you suppors a selfish view that the ecosystem is designed to be congenial to humans, and anything else is "wrong". It is interesting to speculate if the sentient cockroaches of 100 megayears hence would detect any traces of us).

ageofwant 9y ago
Because that 'waste' is fuel for 4th generation breeder reactors and will be used as such. The result of that process is low grade waste that you can dump a meter of topsoil on and build a park or kindergarten on top of. Guarapari beach is more radioactive. There is no such thing as nuclear waste.
- AnonymousPlanet 9y ago
  Maybe you should talk to some actual nuclear engineers and not just read starry eyed proposals. The engineering tasks of building and maintainig said reactors plus digging up the waste and shipping it there is tremendous. Especially sodium cooled proposals get the most face palms from people who actually work in the field. "There's a reason psysicists don't design reactors but engineers do" is a quote I remember from the last time I met a nuclear engineer and discussed transmutation proposals. Bottom line: Nothing is solved and it will take decades to get to a design that consumes new waste, let alone old waste that is currently rotting under ground and is ever harder to get to.
  - DennisP 9y ago
    Russia seems pretty happy with their sodium-cooled reactors, they have two in commercial operation and are building more.

pjc50 9y ago

There are a lot more things than simply spent fuel that end up as nuclear waste.