🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi,

After joining this thread (and suggesting the idea of subduction zone
internment for N waste) I actually got around to doing a web search for the
idea and found:

http://www.law.fsu.edu/transnational/issues/7-1/wacz.html

It appears that the idea of a "torpedo-shaped metal "penetrometers," " has
been examined already.  The article says that the US dropped funding for the
study in 1986 due to budget cuts and a leaning towards land based disposal.
The article also raises the legal implications of this type of disposal
given current international treaties.

Anyway... there are very few new ideas.  I suppose that it pays to look (or
at least search) before putting finger to keyboard.  The questions stills
remains though.  What are the best ways to store the waste (not in order of
priority or seriousness).

1. Dump it in the local land fill.
2. Dump it in the ocean.
3. Vitrify and store in a subterranean repository.
4. Vitrify & dump sub-sea.
5. Recycle and burn (in the nuclear sense).
6. Feed it to whales (do whales beach themselves because their bodies have
an actinite/transuranic deficiency? :-)
7. Store it above ground in leaky drums.
8. (This idea from Jerry Pournelle I think - or was it Larry Niven).  Turn
it into currency.  Then your coins could literally burn a hole in your
pocket.
9. Bank on future technology helping out.  We can't easily burn/recycle much
of the waste now, but in a few decades this may be possible.  Look at
storage that will last for 100s of years.  Assuming that in the future
society will be at least technologically advanced as we are then they should
also be able to store it for 100s of years.
10. Convert a decommissioned nuclear power plants to storage facilities.
The containment/reactor buildings should be strong, water-proof and secure
already.
11. Decommission the NORAD facility in Colorado (if that's where it is) and
put the stuff in there.  You already have a big hole in a mountain that
should be reasonably secure.
12. Go to an underground nuclear testing site. Drill a hole to where a bomb
was exploded.  Pour the waste down.  Plug the hole. Forget about it.  The
site is already hot.  The bomb cavity should be essentially lined with
glass. It would be very hard for a terrorist to recover any of the material.

Any other suggestions?

As I see it, we have (at least) two responsibilites to the future:
1. Don't leave too big a mess for them to clean up.
2. Don't deprive them of a potentially valuable resource.  They are going to
be really pissed off with us that we used all the oil/gas, don't annoy them
of putting a valuable resource like plutonium where it can't possibly be
recovered.


Another question.  How much waste is there to store at the moment? I see
quotes in the form of '000s tons but can't visualize this.  Assuming average
density of 1000kg/m^3 (ie water) then 1000 tonne of waste is about 10m^3.
So, how big is the hole in the Yucca mountains?