1073
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

In Germany, we've got a location with 47,000 cubic meters: https://www.bge.de/en/asse/
That requires some pretty tall stacking on that football field. Or I guess, you're saying if you'd unpack it all and compress it?

Also, we really should be getting the nuclear waste out of said location, since there's a known risk of contamination. But even that challenge is too great for us, apparently.
Mainly, because we don't have any locations that are considered safe for permanent storage. It's cool that Switzerland has figured it out. And that some hypothetical football field exists. But it doesn't exist in Germany, and I'm pretty sure, Switzerland doesn't want our nuclear waste either.

I'm speaking strictly of the mass. Most the volume on those containers are likely structure to make sure there is no accidental leak, similar to Switzerland.

I also misremembered, it was all of US' waste that could fit on a single football.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately, there's not much structure to these, no. It's nuclear waste from the 60s and early 70s, when there were practically no safety laws in place yet. They just got dumped down there in steel barrels. In a salt mine, which now has water entering it. I'm hoping, the barrels got at least filled up with concrete, but I have no idea.

[-] Waryle@jlai.lu 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In Germany, we've got a location with 47,000 cubic meters: https://www.bge.de/en/asse/

Read your link: 47 000m³ of low and intermediate radioactive waste.

Low radioactive waste is objects (paper, clothing, etc...) which contain a small amount of short-lived radioactivity, and it mostly comes from the medical fields, not nuclear plants, so even if you phase out of nuclear, you'll have to deal with it anyway.

This waste makes up for the vast majority (94% in UK for example) of the nuclear waste produced, and you can just leave it that way a few years, then dispose of it as any other waste.

Intermediate radioactivity waste is irradiated components of nuclear power plants. They are in solid form and do not require any special arrangement to store them as they do not heat up. This includes shorts and long-lived waste and represents only a small part of the volume of radioactive waste produced (4% in UK).

So you're mostly dealing with your medical nuclear waste right here, and you can thank your anti-nuclear folks for blocking most of your infrastructure construction projects to store this kind of waste.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

That shit still needs to be stored. I do not know, why you're berating me about it.

[-] Waryle@jlai.lu 2 points 1 year ago

I did not berated you, I corrected you. If being corrected feel like being berated to you, maybe fact check yourself before commenting

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

They had written that you could fit the entire world's waste on a football field. I had not interpreted that as specifically referring to high level nuclear waste.

[-] Waryle@jlai.lu 2 points 1 year ago

Come on, even the comment above it specifically mention waste generated by nuclear power and its management

[-] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

The comment mentioned Homer (glowing green rods), I don’t recall any episode where Springfield deals with socks from radiology departments nearby. That kind of obfuscation is kinda par for the course any time you bring up nuke stuff though, folks don’t realize it’s a political problem not an engineering one and most of the anti nuke talking points are fabricated for fearmongering

this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
1073 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

73567 readers
3179 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS