Will Russian nuclear incompetence bone Europe again?

They've been able to reprocess much of the material for years, but the vast majority of waste produce is simply unusable because it is contaminated material rather than useful fuel.

 

Launch that stuff into the sun. Of course, an explosion aboard a rocket during take off would be a giant problem, but if you could get it into space it would be a fairly easy process to drive it towards the sun and then let gravity take care of the rest.

Or they could try nuking Mars and seeing if they could warm things up a little bit there. In a few thousand years it might be inhabitable. Realistically they'll have to store it on Earth indefinitely, or at least until space travel is relatively risk free.

 

The crew cabin on the Challanger survived that explosion, I see no reason why we couldn't launch a properly made capsule into the sun. The only real worry will be about it coming back from orbit. Still wouldn't be hard to make the thing survive re-entry.

 

I think I remember somewhere that the Govt. wanted to launch Nuclear Waste into space.

Probably was a joke though. I also remember hearing that you could gather all of the Radioactive material on the planet, launch it at Jupiter, and still not be as powerful an explosion as a Meteorite or Comet.

 

Believe it or not, there is some stupid treaty signed somewhere by all the nuclear-capable countries that they will not detonate nukes in space. I'm pretty sure launching nuclear waste fits in there. Of course, you can do whatever the fuck you want on Earth... but out in space where no people are... no... don't do that.

 

Nice idea, had the same one..But I fear it would be way too costy, and what if it would have any effects on the sun?

Well, that's prolly due to the electromagnetic wave forming aside from a nucular weapon explosion methinks..

BTW, do you know why they stopped doing nucular experiments on open spaces? Go and have a look at the global radioactivity measurements during the 50's and 60's and you'll find your reason for that.

 

Part of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty IIRC, which disallowed all that signed from testing nukes in space, under water, air burst, or on land (which left subterranean testing).

 

Even if NASA came up with a way of safely getting the waste into space it would almost still never happen. Too many groups would come together and make it politically impossible.

I don't believe that the launching of all nuclear material is covered by that since they have launched deep space probes that were nuclear powered since then.

The reason space based detonations are bad is because the EMP produced by them causes massive unintended problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_altitude_nuclear_explosion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

 

there's a secret city in siberia, that is not in any map and exists only for hiding and buring all their nuclear wastes....

don't mix people being poor with country being poor. russia as a country is one of the wealthiest and resourceful.

they need nobody's help, trust me.

 

I hope I understand you.
Ok, do you mean the fast breeder? There is only one in the world:
in Russia - with 600 MW Power. Ok, one called "Phenix" in France, but it's
shut down. And a small one in China (since 1998, I think).
The electricity out of fast breeder is too expensive, and if you think
about the danger of an explosion, especially in fast breeder plants,
it's just unattractive.
We had one in Germany, but it became too expensive.
Today the former german fast breeder is an amusement park:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:SchnellerBrueterKalkar.jpg
http://www.kernwasser-wunderland.de/
Think a about the transport, the security measures
and stuff like that to bring the waste to it's destination.

It's a very bad idea to shoot radioactive waste into space.
One crash: Millions (or more) can die.

Nobody seems to know how much he really pays for atomic power:
apps never armortize - this is a very important point (because of
the ernormous subsidiy)
Wind power does.
Wars will start because of Uranium.
Some Uranium export countries are politically unstable.
In the meantime solar cells have a efficiency of more than 20%
apps have a little more than 30%.

America has done a lot in renewable energy, for ex.:
http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/
But, after G8 there is a new trend: small apps cooled with lead.
This technology will become the atomic energy of the future
(I hope not) for 3rd world countries.
In Europe we have a problem: EdF (France) - they are very strong
and pushing atomic power forward. It's some kind of a think tank war.