5 ms·
The amount of long-lived nuclear waste generated per human over a life time is about the size of an apple. That's (unrealistically) assuming 100% nuclear electr
by speleding 8y ago
The amount of long-lived nuclear waste generated per human over a life time is about the size of an apple. That's (unrealistically) assuming 100% nuclear electricity generation and no further progress in reducing the waste amount. It's a problem but compared to our greenhouse problems it's not _HUGE_.
- abalone 8y agoSize is not the problem. Toxicity over centuries is the problem. Apples are a poor reference because it’s safe to be near them and they decompose within a year.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoAn apple has a volume of ~100ml. A standard 20ft container has a volume of 33.2m^3 and would hold 332,000 people's worth of radioactive waste. 7-billion people's worth of radioactive waste would take a little over 21,000 containers. The largest container ships hold up to 20,000 containers. We could power the world with nuclear power only have to deal with a little more than a full container ship of waste. I'm sure if there was political will we'd have no problem finding a safe place for it. I suspect just sinking it over an ocean trench would be less bad for the environment than the status quo. It's mind boggling that we can generate all this energy by splitting atoms but we're still burning things and putting up windmills like it's the 1500s.