Question by rickwhite1956: Putting nuclear waste in space still better then recycling?
Recycling a good idea right. Today I researched more into recycling Nuclear Reactor waste. Well, right now the process of recycling Reactor NW produces plutonium of weapons grade. This is why recycling is not done. Fear the product
will fall into the wrong hands. The general scientific consensus is to bury the spent waste and NV. has a site under consideration. Reading has told me it will cost billions to analyze the site, get approval and then dig the site aprox.
1000 ft below ground not to mention the safety and security required. This is world knowledge which means our enemies also know. We always tattle. Science thinks this depth will protect us as it did naturally for eons. But for eons we
did not have nuclear weapons so if we build it and someone puts one or two nuclear weapons there we have a global nightmare. They want to put all our eggs in this basket. There are basically 3 levels of NW strength and of course the
strongest have a very long half life. Think Space
Best answer:
Answer by poiromaniac
think the energy required to launch all those barrels. that energy is still going to be more than you think, plus you suggest about the whole dirty bomb, well a container of nuclear waste crashing out of the sky because of failed rocket motors is gonna be a whole lot worse!
I like what you are saying in that it is a long term threat to our safely and that we are better off with it further away from us, but we shouldn’t necessarily do it for the fact of doing it, we should do it when tech gives us the opportunity to use it for some use – easier space travel in general anyone?
What do you think? Answer below!
The billions have already been spent and it is ready to accept waste now. Recycling waste only produces weapons grade material if refined that much. Japan had a shipment of LOX I believe it was called from France a few years ago. It was recycled waste heading to Japanese reactors. There is 49 times more energy in the waste than in the original product (don’t understand the math on that one, but its true) and we just bury that. Many other useful radioactive elements can also be reclaimed from used fuel rods, but it has been outlawed for political reasons as much as anything. No, I do not support nuclear, but if we have it we might as well use it wisely.
Right now we have about 50,000 tons of nuclear waste that would have to be launched into space, and the fuel and energy necessary to do that makes it cost prohibitive,
Actually the Yucca Mountain storage site has been built and is ready to store wastes, they even give tours to the public, its just awaiting funding to go into operation, but that is being blocked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Dem. NV).
The main reason we don’t reuse spent fuel rods (this would be called a breeder reactor) is because we can’t. The US signed a treaty saying that because the by product of a breeder reactor is weapons grade plutonium we would not use them. This made the other nations happy while all it did was pollute the planet more. The half life for regular fuel rods is between 100-200 years approx. For the reused ones it is usually no more than 30.
Nuclear waste in space? It’s not bad enough that we are poisoning our self here on earth, Now we want to poison the space above us? This is madness! Why not bury all the waste we can in our Government back yard ? Starting with Bush’s & cheney’s they own more miles of land then the normal person, What’s next dropping our waste on Mars? or maybe the MOON? This Goverment has run our country into the ground with there filty oil companey’s Do they forget they live on earth & breath the same air the rest of us do? if not What Planet are they from?
Europe and other countries recycle spent fuel rods and they’re on the way to being energy independent. The USA is the only country that has built up superstitions based on Hollywood movies made thirty years ago, about nuclear energy. Stop burying and start using. It costs more to bury the stuff than to put it back into the system.
We give our secrets to our enemies anyway so what difference does that make?
Nope. Recycling (plus reusing and reducing) are still our best options – if we don’t create the waste in the first place, we wouldn’t have a problem.
As for nuclear waste in space:
Huge cost and pollution in getting it there
Huge issues about trucking the waste around the world to launch sites and….
…there is still a significant failure rate in space launches; it would only be a matter of time before a rocket goes *boom* and scatters radioactive waste all over the place!
basically when you use nuclear power there is a waste product. This waste has to be stored in glass jars undergrund but not too deep for the water which is used for drinking to get contaminated. The most likely thing is that the jars are stored somewhere where people can;t get it.
pollute the other planets be for we get there and pray the rocket full of nuclear waste don`t explode on take off