Nuclear Waste Disposal

One of the biggest downfalls of Nuclear Energy cited by critics is the waste. What do you do with something that sticks around for Millions of Years and increases the chances of cancer as well as is extremely hot and can be used to make Nuclear Weapons?

Well currently, we stick this waste in safe little underground shelters in canisters that we hope don't deteriorate in the next 2 million years or so and also put up some security hoping that no Terrorists will be able to figure out a way to break in and steal this waste and use it to make a Nuclear Weapon in say the next 2 thousand years. Yea! Human ingenuity right there.

The radioactivity deteriorates fairly quickly at least: only 600-5000 years and the radioactivity levels should be back to normal for Uranium ore in other words what it was before we started getting energy from the Uranium. Seems like a long time huh? But compared to Millions of years and in the history of the earth, it's really nothing at all.

But that seems to be too close to a dodge of the question to satisfy me and many other people out there, so thankfully someone developed an amazing process that is called Reprocessing. During Reprocessing  up to 95% of Uranium and Plutonium in Nuclear Waste is reused and thus gotten rid of.

It really is amazing. Most of the remaining radioactive elements left in the waste after Reprocessing are short-lived. Granted, this is once again relative--so short lived means several thousand years, but compared to millions and billions: yeah, it's short. Not only that, but the Plutonium and Uranium which are reused account for 90% of the volume of the waste so we can fit more waste in fewer areas. Besides this, the reused Plutonium and Uranium are elements that extracted from the rest of the waste could be used to create mushroom-cloud type explosives. AKA Nuclear Weapons/Bombs. We are effectively transforming potential Nuclear Weapons into useful energy.

Now, Reprocessing sounds like a great idea right? Well, sadly for the USA it's illegal here. Thank you Obama Administration. This is supposedly to decrease "Nuclear Proliferation" which basically means stopping Terrorists and people not afraid about blowing up millions of other people from obtaining Nuclear Weapons. Reprocessing extracts the elements that can be used to create Nuclear Weapons and so obviously by allowing Reprocessing we are increasing the chances that the dangerous elements will be obtained by Terrorists right?

Well, it makes some sense. I happen to disagree though: I find it far more likely that Nuclear Waste will be obtained by Terrorists if we have more of it sitting around in Waste Dumps for thousands of years. We should reuse these dangerous elements and eliminate the risk! Obviously it would have to be carefully observed, but it could be done.

Another problem with Reprocessing is that it takes about 2x as much as just getting new Uranium leading to higher costs as we found in my last blog post: http://nuclearenergyforutah.blogspot.com/2012/12/nuclear-energy-stopping-rise-of-energy.html. However, the Government could Subsidize Reprocessing as it lowers the risk of Terrorists blowing up large portions of our country.

Speaking about Terrorists blowing up large portions of our country, I would like to point out something. How come the United States can come up with a Nuclear Weapon in 1945 and Iran is still trying to figure it out in 2012? 67 Years later! We have the Internet now! Granted, Iran doesn't have Albert Einstein, but still! There's something screwy going on there.

Anyway, now that I'm done with my little rant, I believe that Reprocessing is a viable option for the United States and that we should pursue it in Legislature as well as we can. Reprocessing eliminates a lot of the problems cited with Nuclear Energy and specifically here in Utah keeps those darn politicians from wanting to dump the waste here because there would be a lot less of it.

I would be a lot more willing to hear about Nuclear Waste disposal in my state if I knew it wasn't going to stick around for Millions of Years, and also if I knew there would be a lot less.

Thank you for reading my latest installment and continue looking for what is true yourself. Don't take anything I say for granted. It's why I try to always give my sources.

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Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power#Waste_disposal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reprocessing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_proliferation
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