4 ms·
It's hard to price in the cost of the very long tail of nuclear waste. This is my greatest hesitation with nuclear power. I'm sure someone will point to bleedi
by elevaet 5y ago
It's hard to price in the cost of the very long tail of nuclear waste. This is my greatest hesitation with nuclear power.
I'm sure someone will point to bleeding-edge tech with waste that has shorter half-life, but nuclear power as we build it now generally produces waste that is hazardous for hundreds or thousands of years, afaik.
The other objection will be: yes but what about the price of heating the planet? It's a strong point, but it's still a very hard calculation to balance.
How do we least burden future humanity?
- fastaguy88 5y agoThis argument suggests that only nuclear waste has a long half-life. I suppose this is true if you require a half-life, but coal plants also produce heavy metal and ash waste that never decays.
- thehappypm 5y agoDid you know that all the nuclear waste ever produced by the US would fit in about a dozen Olympic pools? This isn’t some massive amount of fuel we’re talking about here.