Acuff@RUTGERS.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (10/08/83)
From: Rich Acuff at Ohio State <Acuff@RUTGERS.ARPA> I don't know much about the details of this, but here is an idea I've been kicking around for a little while: Given a cheap, efficient method of getting into space (ie. shuttle, space station, perhaps ion-drive), why couldn't the waste be taken up and dropped into the biggest pile of nuclear waste in the solar system--the sun? Of course, there would be lots of problems, but given the alternatives, it might be cost-effective... -- Rich
mwe@astrovax.UUCP (10/13/83)
The problem with space disposal is the risk involved. If you could be 100% sure of getting the waste into the sun, then the problem would be solved completely. Unfortunately, with any currently available ( or available for the forseeable future) space vehicle is that the reliability, while very high, is not 100%. And because the potential danger of scattering the waste throughout the atmosphere as the result of a crash or explosion on launch or something is many orders of magnitude greater than the danger of small leaks in underground containment vessels, the idea turns out to be, on average, more dangerous. web ewell astrovax!mwe
nazgul@apollo.UUCP (Kee Hinckley) (10/13/83)
Offhand I can think of only two reasons. Expense (in the short
term of course, if it were long term expense it wouldn't matter
(isn't that how it works?)) and danger. If that rocket ever fails
to make it we have a first class disaster on our hands.
-keelmg@houxb.UUCP (L.M.Geary) (10/15/83)
Why not launch nuclear wastes into space and dump them into the Sun? Two reasons: 1. There might be an accident during launch. Imagine having to clean up the mess, let alone the unfavorable media reaction. 2. Someday, we might actually find a good use for the stuff. Why put it where you can't recover it?