Why can’t we dump nuclear waste in the same place we mine nuclear fuel?
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When you “burn” nuclear fuel in a reactor, it comes out much more radioactive than before it went in.
It’s like a can of soda. If you shake it up, it’s best to let it sit a bit before you open it. Otherwise, many small bubbles of gas will expand at the same time creating a huge mess.
With nuclear fuel, once you burn it in a reactor, you will have created many different elements (including more fuel for more reactors or bombs). This cocktail of random weird stuff is not nice and it’s best to put it someplace where it will not be disturbed, by man or by nature, for a few thousand years. Like the shaken can of soda, it needs to sit for a while to ‘settle down’.
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