Radioactive Waste
There is an interesting article in the
MIT Technology Review on the current practices in waste management and what might be done differently...
bq.
A New Vision for Nuclear Waste
Storing nuclear waste underground at Yucca Mountain for 100,000 years is a terrible idea. A better approach may be to buy some time—until new containment technologies mature.
His comments about Yucca Mountain are on-target:
bq.
The Tunnel Vision
The federal fixation on Yucca Mountain now spans two decades. Beginning in the early 1980s, the government agreed to take waste from any nuclear utility that paid a tariff of a tenth of a cent per kilowatt-hour generated by its reactors. All the companies quickly signed up. But the selection of Yucca, 150 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, was never driven by science. The site was chosen by that august group of geologists and physicists, the U.S. Congress.
The jist is to use dry cask storage for a hundred years or so and then use advanced technologies that are now in the research stage to refine the rods. The article is well researched and there are some good links to other resources.
Posted by DaveH at November 18, 2004 3:09 PM