Is there any safe place to dispose or get rid of nuclear waste?
1 Answer
Deep geological storage facilities are considered the best way to dispose of nuclear waste.
Explanation:
Deep storage is considered the best solution, but finding a geologically optimal site is a major challenge. Must be a very geologically stable location, dry and away from fault zones. Some facilities have been built around the world (Europe and Asia) and more are planned by Canada and the U.S. The U.S. spent billions studying a site in Nevada, only to conclude it wouldn't work
Other problems include the fact that nobody wants one of these facilities in their backyard (called NIMBY), so citizen groups often oppose a reasonable site. Another issue is how to let future generations, say 10,000 years from now, know that a deep geological disposal site is present? Finally, some people think that what we consider a waste now, but actually be an important resource, say 100 years in the future so someone might actually want to recover this material in the future.
