2 ms·

Nuclear waste is stored very, very deep and secure. I cannot imagine future humans having the technology to open these up, without knowing what is in there. Eit

by kmm 13y ago

Nuclear waste is stored very, very deep and secure. I cannot imagine future humans having the technology to open these up, without knowing what is in there. Either we lose all of our knowledge and no soul will ever see that site, or we stay an advanced civilization and we are warned of the dangers before opening the nuclear waste facilities. Don't forget that uranium is found naturally in the ground, in geologically vastly more unstable regions, with water flowing through it. What we're doing is concentrating the radioactivity, and putting it deeper and safer. If you're afraid of mankind finding these waste sites in the future, are you not afraid of them finding uranium in their drinking water?

_delirium 13y ago
> Nuclear waste is stored very, very deep and secure. Ideally it would be. But in many cases in practice, that isn't the case, because those facilities have either not been built, or not opened. In the U.S., since the long-planned Yucca Mountain facility has never opened, most nuclear waste is stored on-site at the reactor complex, in above-ground facilities. For the first few years it's immersed in cooling pools [1], and then subsequently is parked in metal/concrete cylinders [2]. This is considered interim storage awaiting final burial in geologically stable vaults, but without Yucca Mountain the "interim" storage has become de-facto permanent. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_fuel_pool http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_fuel_pool [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cask_storage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cask_storage
kgarten 13y ago
In Germany half is currently stored in an old salt mine which is at risk of water breaking in (in a region with seismic activity) ... the other half sits in bright daylight under tin roofs (not my definition of very very deep ... :)
- Xylakant 13y ago
  Even worse - the risk is not water breaking in, since that's already happening. The risk is total collapse and contamination of the ground water: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asse_II_mine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asse_II_mine So now the plan is to retrieve all the waste and store it - this time better at an estimated cost of at least 4 - 6 billion Euro. The general problem I have with nuclear power is that it's all fine and dandy as long as everything goes as planned. If not, then everything goes boom in a big way. And where humans and profits are involved, plans tend not to involve all failure modes: The explosions in fukushima could have been avoided using catalytic recombinators which are for example mandatory in germany [1]. [1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaktorsicherheit#T.C3.B6pfer-Kerzen http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaktorsicherheit#T.C3.B6pfer-K... (sorry, german)

by kmm 13y ago

_delirium 13y ago

> Nuclear waste is stored very, very deep and secure. Ideally it would be. But in many cases in practice, that isn't the case, because those facilities have either not been built, or not opened. In the U.S., since the long-planned Yucca Mountain facility has never opened, most nuclear waste is stored on-site at the reactor complex, in above-ground facilities. For the first few years it's immersed in cooling pools [1], and then subsequently is parked in metal/concrete cylinders [2]. This is considered interim storage awaiting final burial in geologically stable vaults, but without Yucca Mountain the "interim" storage has become de-facto permanent. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_fuel_pool http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_fuel_pool [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cask_storage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cask_storage

kgarten 13y ago

In Germany half is currently stored in an old salt mine which is at risk of water breaking in (in a region with seismic activity) ... the other half sits in bright daylight under tin roofs (not my definition of very very deep ... :)

Xylakant 13y ago
Even worse - the risk is not water breaking in, since that's already happening. The risk is total collapse and contamination of the ground water: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asse_II_mine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asse_II_mine So now the plan is to retrieve all the waste and store it - this time better at an estimated cost of at least 4 - 6 billion Euro. The general problem I have with nuclear power is that it's all fine and dandy as long as everything goes as planned. If not, then everything goes boom in a big way. And where humans and profits are involved, plans tend not to involve all failure modes: The explosions in fukushima could have been avoided using catalytic recombinators which are for example mandatory in germany [1]. [1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaktorsicherheit#T.C3.B6pfer-Kerzen http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaktorsicherheit#T.C3.B6pfer-K... (sorry, german)