Eli5: What is so bad about the waste of nuclear power plants? Why are many governments so against it? What is so hard about storing the waste in a safe place?
In: Technology
Nuclear waste stays radioactive for a REALLY long time. During the first hundred years this presents little or no problems. BUT, after a while the drums sealed in concrete can and will begin to leak. Any leakage not only contaminates the the outer container but any surface the containers are in or on. That means you have to dig up the floor or dirt in the facility and recontain it and the original containers. This isn’t a big deal in the short term but over hundreds and hundreds of years it’s going to be a big problem! If 1 tom of waste is produced in the first years and each year there after: Year one = 1 ton of waste. Year two= 1 ton plus one ton equals 2 tons, Year three= 1 ton plus two tons, plus 2 tons, year four = 1 ton plus 3 tons equals four tons of stored waste. Still not a big deal, eh? Okay, lets say an accident occurs on year 8 and 44 tons of contaminated waste needs to be stored. Suddenly you have 54 tons of store waste!. Now, repeat this cycle every 20 years and by year 100 you have hundreds of tons of radioactive waste to watch over, contain and monitor. If an earthquake hits and damages the storage site you could have thousands of tens of thousands of tons of radioactive waste to contend with. Politicians can safely say “they” have nothing to worry about whole ignoring the radioactive legacy they leave for our descents to live with.
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