Military were warned to not test nukes in the west because prevailing west winds would carry fallout to the eastern states. They should have been testing on the east coast.
So there was this carefully selected place called Yucca mountain where radioactive waste could be safely stored for a million years without concerns like this. However, due to public opposition we dont use it, and instead theres just kind of… Nowhere good to go. That doesnt solve this problem, pretty sure this issue predates Yucca, but if you want to see the kind of engineering solution that should be used then Yucca mountain is a great example.
Yeah. I remember the whole yucca mountain debate. Had nothing to do with the storage location itself. It had to do with the fact that they’re going to be shipping radioactive waste directly through my hometown as well as a lot of other very highly populated places. Things that we didn’t want shipped through our area. And saying that it could be stored for millions of years safely there is kind of a joke. You know this was still built by the same types of contractors that get government bids. In other words the lowest bidder out there.
If it’s anything like the solution planned in Finland, the waste is placed in copper containers, transported in pretty much bomb-proof vessels, and the facility is kilometres deep underground split into multiple separated chambers that get filled with concrete (or bentonite to be more precise) once they are full.
The result is a solid block that will survive basically forever and the only thing you need to do is not go dig it back up.
If I remember correctly, one of the biggest problems was the transportation issue, which no one had a solution for. How exactly do you safely transfer several tons of nuclear waste from, say, Shearon Harris to Yucca Mountain? that’s a very long train route. And you want to do this on a recurring basis? from several different locations around the country?
How exactly are you going to convince the states in between that they should permit you to transport nuclear waste across their borders, repeatedly? Who is going to provide security for all of this nuclear waste while it’s in transit? Who is going to accept liability for any accidents that occur, and who is going to handle the PR when a truckload of irradiated water gets dumped in some neighborhood?
Good luck getting anyone who even wants to explore establishing those arrangements as their full-time job. “Yes, I brokered the agreement for transporting radioactive material that resulted in a half-ton of waste being spread across ten backyards and an elementary school playground just outside of Birmingham.” Sounds like career suicide, and maybe not career suicide.
There are people who do that now. I’m not an expert but I know there is specific DOT training for exactly that purpose. By regulation the waste is packed into a specifically strong cask that has been tested to withstand being dropped, lit on fire, etc. Good luck breaking one of those open.
I’m no engineer, but 33 feet does not seem like a deep enough hole to be pushing a bunch of radioactive debris into. seems shortsighted…
Military were warned to not test nukes in the west because prevailing west winds would carry fallout to the eastern states. They should have been testing on the east coast.
Military: nah.
Shortsighted? That’s not a word I relate to the government AT ALL.
So there was this carefully selected place called Yucca mountain where radioactive waste could be safely stored for a million years without concerns like this. However, due to public opposition we dont use it, and instead theres just kind of… Nowhere good to go. That doesnt solve this problem, pretty sure this issue predates Yucca, but if you want to see the kind of engineering solution that should be used then Yucca mountain is a great example.
Yeah. I remember the whole yucca mountain debate. Had nothing to do with the storage location itself. It had to do with the fact that they’re going to be shipping radioactive waste directly through my hometown as well as a lot of other very highly populated places. Things that we didn’t want shipped through our area. And saying that it could be stored for millions of years safely there is kind of a joke. You know this was still built by the same types of contractors that get government bids. In other words the lowest bidder out there.
If it’s anything like the solution planned in Finland, the waste is placed in copper containers, transported in pretty much bomb-proof vessels, and the facility is kilometres deep underground split into multiple separated chambers that get filled with concrete (or bentonite to be more precise) once they are full. The result is a solid block that will survive basically forever and the only thing you need to do is not go dig it back up.
If I remember correctly, one of the biggest problems was the transportation issue, which no one had a solution for. How exactly do you safely transfer several tons of nuclear waste from, say, Shearon Harris to Yucca Mountain? that’s a very long train route. And you want to do this on a recurring basis? from several different locations around the country?
How exactly are you going to convince the states in between that they should permit you to transport nuclear waste across their borders, repeatedly? Who is going to provide security for all of this nuclear waste while it’s in transit? Who is going to accept liability for any accidents that occur, and who is going to handle the PR when a truckload of irradiated water gets dumped in some neighborhood?
Good luck getting anyone who even wants to explore establishing those arrangements as their full-time job. “Yes, I brokered the agreement for transporting radioactive material that resulted in a half-ton of waste being spread across ten backyards and an elementary school playground just outside of Birmingham.” Sounds like career suicide, and maybe not career suicide.
There are people who do that now. I’m not an expert but I know there is specific DOT training for exactly that purpose. By regulation the waste is packed into a specifically strong cask that has been tested to withstand being dropped, lit on fire, etc. Good luck breaking one of those open.
https://robateltech.com/transportation-and-storage-casks/
Found this in a quick search. If you pay people enough they will do it. Liability is owned by the people sending the shipment.
https://cleanmanagement.com/blog/understanding-the-cradle-to-the-grave-waste-disposal-system/
The Russian fueled tankies came up with lots of reasons
Waste is their anti nuclear trump card and they’re not willing to give that up
Another good one is Onkalo in Finland.
Its the US military. I cant name a time where “shortsighted” doesnt describe them