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Germany - The search for a final repository for nuclear waste may be delayed by decades (aussiedlerbote.de)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

why can't we launch the waste to the sun?

Because we are talking about thousands of tonnes of highly radioactive waste (not counting the lower ones). A quick search tells me in the region of 15.000t for Germany. That alone makes it pretty expensive.

And then you want to launch it into space where every start you risk an explosion that spreads that waste?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Hm... I thought we've mastered the launch, but maybe I thought wrong.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Accidents happen and considering the amount of waste there would be have to be quite a few launches.

I'm not sure if there is a good list out there, but just some examples from memory: just last month space x failed to deliver satellites in the right orbit and I think one of the other incidents at the end relates to this one that actually exploded.

The second one ofc is a bit older, but still what is an acceptable risk to take when handling radioactive material? And the recent one also wouldn't be fun.

I would also imagine that handling the waste on the ground would make everything much more difficult until the launch.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Oh! Nice find, I wasn't aware of the recent failures. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Putting things into space is extremely expensive in both money and harm to the environment.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

You gotta pick your poison. Nuclear waste vs carbon dioxide.

Since I see no evidence of sea levels rising... refer to Liberty Island images of the late 1800s vs recent (yeah yeah "fact checkers" tried using tide fluctuation as an explanation as if that wasn't taken into account), I rather pick carbon dioxide over something that can mutate our DNA, give us cancer, and die a slow death.

Also:

Spent nuclear fuel can be recycled to make new fuel and byproducts. More than 90% of its potential energy still remains in the fuel, even after five years of operation in a reactor. The United States does not currently recycle spent nuclear fuel but foreign countries, such as France, do. Oct 3, 2022

Wasn't even aware, learned something new.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I choose solar.