Disposing of nuclear waste by rockets is the most crazy way possible to get rid of it. First of all you have to strap it on top of rockets (that we know never fail). Secondly getting it out of Earth's orbit would take a monstrously huge amount of energy. Consider that it took the Saturn 5 to take a few dozen tons to the Moon.
If the US Army can get huge swats of it to blow to kingdom come, its hard to argue that 0.01% of that couldn't be cornered off. It wouldn't take more than that, the amount of nuclear waste though its rather difficult to work with, doesn't really take up all that much space. A years production of nuclear waste from a large nuclear powerplant could fit into the concrete foundation of a single wind turbine.
Any nuclear power plant usually has a buffer zone of a couple of miles (overkill in my opinion). A very small facility in that could be built where its stored.
Isn't coal ash full of heavy metal residues? I know its mixed into cement, asphalt and other places that can soak it up. But I've never heard of it used as a fertiliser. Ash from charcoal would be more fitting for that I imagine. Mostly companies have just dumped it into landfills for as long as they have been allowed to get away with that. The space taken up by that ash dwarves many times the space that would be taken up by nuclear waste disposals.
Originally posted by Teallaura
Any nuclear power plant usually has a buffer zone of a couple of miles (overkill in my opinion). A very small facility in that could be built where its stored.
Coal ash/soot actually has an historic use as fertilizer - I'd assumed that it was used for that. With the new emphasis on organics, that may change.
Comment