4 ms·

Put it deep enough in bedrock where there is no groundwater, like the Finns https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkalo_spent_nuclear_fuel_repository https://en.m.w

Put it deep enough in bedrock where there is no groundwater, like the Finns https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkalo_spent_nuclear_fuel_repository https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkalo_spent_nuclear_fuel_re... There is still the issue of how to communicate “Danger: Nuclear Waste” to the people who will encounter the waste storage facility over the next 10,000-100,000 years, but for now we can safely store waste.

throwaway894345 5y ago
Pretty sure in 10K years the nuclear waste will no longer be radiotoxic. > The radioactivity of nuclear waste naturally decays, and has a finite radiotoxic lifetime. Within a period of 1,000-10,000 years, the radioactivity of HLW decays to that of the originally mined ore. Its hazard then depends on how concentrated it is. By comparison, other industrial wastes (e.g. heavy metals, such as cadmium and mercury) remain hazardous indefinitely. - https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-wastes/radioactive-wastes-myths-and-realities.aspx https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-c... The above is probably some nuclear power lobby (vested interest and all that), but I think the point is a good one.
BitwiseFool 5y ago
Put it somewhere extremely hard to get to without industrialized tools. Assuming civilization doesn't collapse, any society with the kind of resources to want to go back in and extract the radioactive was is going to know what radioactivity is. If you assume it does collapse, the protection you get from a lack of power tools and logistics makes breaking into the waste repository prohibitively expensive. I doubt an agrarian or non-industrial society would be able to bankroll an expedition to a place like, say, Antarctica or the Atacama Desert and then being digging thousands of feet down using hand tools and ropes to find magic rocks. An example I'd like to cite is how one of the Sultan's of Egypt tried to dismantle the pyramids and failed horribly because of all the manpower involved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Menkaure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Menkaure

throwaway894345 5y ago

Pretty sure in 10K years the nuclear waste will no longer be radiotoxic. > The radioactivity of nuclear waste naturally decays, and has a finite radiotoxic lifetime. Within a period of 1,000-10,000 years, the radioactivity of HLW decays to that of the originally mined ore. Its hazard then depends on how concentrated it is. By comparison, other industrial wastes (e.g. heavy metals, such as cadmium and mercury) remain hazardous indefinitely. - https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-wastes/radioactive-wastes-myths-and-realities.aspx https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-c... The above is probably some nuclear power lobby (vested interest and all that), but I think the point is a good one.

BitwiseFool 5y ago

Put it somewhere extremely hard to get to without industrialized tools. Assuming civilization doesn't collapse, any society with the kind of resources to want to go back in and extract the radioactive was is going to know what radioactivity is. If you assume it does collapse, the protection you get from a lack of power tools and logistics makes breaking into the waste repository prohibitively expensive. I doubt an agrarian or non-industrial society would be able to bankroll an expedition to a place like, say, Antarctica or the Atacama Desert and then being digging thousands of feet down using hand tools and ropes to find magic rocks. An example I'd like to cite is how one of the Sultan's of Egypt tried to dismantle the pyramids and failed horribly because of all the manpower involved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Menkaure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Menkaure