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Finland might have solved what to do with spent nuclear fuel [video]
- nabla9 5y agoStorage capsules are designed to last 100,000 years. The capsules and bentonite clay buffer around them are designed to withstand the next ice age and 45 MPa added pressure from ice shelves. The surrounding rock is very stable 2.8 billion years old granite with very few cracks (the granite is older than multicellular life or atmospheric oxygen GOE or multicellular life) A scenario where the design is wrong was also considered: Assume that the capsules corrode in just a thousand years, bentonite clay magically disappears, groundwater moves upwards, instead of down, the future generations would build city above it and eat only food that they grow on the top of the burial site. Result: Only 3x the radiation exposure what people normally get.
- db48x 5y agoAnd yet it’s still a waste of time. What we call nuclear waste is simply fuel for a type of reactor that we haven’t built yet. We could keep extracting energy from it until it’s not radioactive any more.