Rocketing nuke waste to space and the sun

[dumpthemonarchy]

They talk of firing nuclear missiles at a possible incoming asteroid to destroy it-which will likely not work, making it radioactive and doubly dangerous as it falls to Earth.

Using the idea of rockets, why not load rockets with spent nuclear rods in their payload to be aimed at and burnt up by the sun? California has bases where the rockets could be sent up over the ocean in case they crash. The nuclear waste would have to be safely encased of course in case they did crash.

This could be a new cottage industry to get rid of industrial waste being produced-which will never be reduced to zero on Earth.

Are the US military's MIRV rockets that unreliable? Why are people so eager to send rockets towards asteroids, even nuclear tipped ones, but ambivalent toward sending nuke waste and the sun?

 

[Tonington]

Well, for one there's cost. Possibly saving an extinction of most life is worth the cost. Shipping all that 'waste' would be monumentally expensive. Who knows, some day it may be viewed as a resource rather than a waste product. France recycles their spent rods.

 

[Just the Facts]

I actually had that idea once :smile:

Makes sense to me. I was thinking about it when they were proposing burying the waste in the Canadian Shield. I figure if they can make containers that they claimed would resist earthquakes for thousands of years, surely they can make something that would survive a rocket misfire.

I can't imagine sending a simple rocket would be much more expensive than burying deep in rock.

 

[lone wolf]

Can the spent rods be used in a CANDU reactor? If I heard my friend right - a long-time green man at Pickering NGS (and no he doesn't glow until he's had a few) - most systems use enriched uranium and it's brought up to reaction whereas CANDU is almost raw and brought down.

Woof!

 

[Niflmir]

Can the spent rods be used in a CANDU reactor? If I heard my friend right - a long-time green man at Pickering NGS (and no he doesn't glow until he's had a few) - most systems use enriched uranium and it's brought up to reaction whereas CANDU is almost raw and brought down.

Woof!

"Nuclear waste" is a catch all term. The utility of the material depends on which reactor produced it. In many cases the waste can be reduced and useful materials extracted from it. I am unaware of any such program in Canada at the moment.

Nuclear waste isn't any more dangerous than many other industrial waste products. It is well understood, and many nations have implemented effective programs to shield the biosphere from the radiation that is dug out of the ground. If you are concerned about radiation emanating from the ground, I suggest you brush up on Radon and everyday radiation exposure and figure out the levels in your own home.

 

[lone wolf]

Radon naturally occurs in granite. If it was super dangerous, I'd be cooked. Hardrock is my backyard. The real dangerous radioactive waste comes in smoke detectors because most folks just toss them in the garbage.

Woof!

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

According to this intl org. no country has a foolproof method of eliminating nuke waste. Sorry, nuke waste is lethal, for a long time, Niflmir.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4891

Nuke agencies and companies are willing to spend and have spent millions and millions of dollars studying how to get rid of nuke waste. As for the expense, space launches are getting cheaper all the time.

Most environemntalists hate all kinds of nuke power, it is military, it is right wing, they don't want to hear.

Solar, wind, and tidal power are much better, cleaner etc. They have not got nearly the money nuke power has gotten. Nuke power is dated, with China and many other countries wanting to build nuke plants, the price of uranium is going to increase like oil.

I wish gov't would waste money on alternative energy and space to rid the planet of toxic waste and tailings rather than the black hole of nuclear power.

 

[Niflmir]

According to this intl org. no country has a foolproof method of eliminating nuke waste. Sorry, nuke waste is lethal, for a long time, Niflmir.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4891

Yes, it is lethal for a long time. I never said it wasn't. What I said was that people know what to do to ensure that the waste is not exposed to the biosphere. The piece you link merely argues that reprocessing doesn't eliminate waste, it merely concentrates it so that less storage space is necessary for the hot waste and can be used as part of an effective waste management strategy, but not as a snake oil.

As for radon, it occurs in granites because uranium naturally occurs in granite and radon is a byproduct of uranium fission. As a gas, it is heavier than air and so it can accumulate in poorly ventilated low lying areas; read, your basement. The levels of radon that develop in an individual home's basement are dependent on the uranium levels of the surrounding bedrock, some bedrock contains higher concentrations than others. After smoking, radon has been found to be the second leading cause of lung cancer.