• ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      28 days ago

      Reprocess it, salvage useful isotopes for known uses, keep a few others for research purposes, don’t put it too far away because most of it could be useful in the future.

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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      27 days ago

      We put it back in the ground where we found it in the first place.

      I don’t see how people are A-OK with uranium and other naturally occurring nuclear isotopes beneath their feet, but used fuel rods from a nuclear power plant? No fucking way!

      Your house is full of radon Joe, the nuclear waste in a sealed casket, buried in the side of a mountain nowhere near you isn’t what is going to give you cancer.

      • mlg@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        I was gonna make a joke about using it for plutonium production, but I’m pretty sure that still requires neutrons from fresh U235 to hit U238 to make U239 which decays into Pu239

    • Elwynn@lemmy.ml
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      28 days ago

      Permanent underground storage where it will naturally decay. Are a couple of different methods available from what I understand. And the amount of material that actually needs to be stored is a fraction of what is instead released into the air, water & soil from fossil based fuel. Not to mention toxins like mercury etc.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      27 days ago

      We have many. Most aren’t in effect yet though, but it also isn’t a serious issue. They’re stored safely in cement caskets, with molten glass and stuff to keep it together and safe, with effectively zero chance to cause an issue. There are permanent ways to store it safely, but we haven’t invested in them yet for many reason. Mostly, dirty energy companies pushing the anti-nuclear message have purposefully hamstrung nuclear from becoming a great solution, and people who think they’re being smart believe them.

      • cloud_herder@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        That and they have ways to reuse “spent” nuclear fuel in newer reactors that can use fuel that older reactors have finished using.

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        Absolutely incorrect. Neutron activation will produce more waste in volume than fission, but without the long lived fission products that are really nasty. We don’t really have a plan yet on HOW we’re going to circulate lithium and recapture tritium and what the waste from that will look like, but we do know it will create a significant amount of waste.

        • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          26 days ago

          Thank you. While in the context of fission both the risk and the amount of waste seem to be much lower and waste can probably be managed by fission related protocols, my comment was too grossly wrong, so I just deleted it.

      • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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        26 days ago

        Have you seen spent fuel storage solutions? I’ll happily hold onto a cask. It wouldn’t be any more radioactive than the smoke coming from the coal plant down the street.

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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      26 days ago

      Just put it back in the ground where it came from. Why is this a concern? It was radioactive rocks when we took it out, and it’s radioactive rocks when we put it back in.