MadSci Network: Astronomy
Query:

Re: Can NASA launch nuclear waste into the Sun?

Date: Thu Oct 14 00:38:13 1999
Posted By: Sidney Chivers, , Nuclear Engineering, retired
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 935754666.As
Message:

Certainly.  The two most significant problems with launching nuclear waste 
into the sun are the political risks associated with launching anything 
radioactive and the non-trivial costs of launching significant payloads 
into the sun.

For insight on the political trauma associated with launching anything 
radioactive there are many potential web references but the following 
reference is for a current issue:
 http://www-tech.mit.edu/V111/N19/hersch.19o.html 

It would take me a while longer than I'd like to spend to find a good 
number for the amount of nuclear waste that one might want to launch into 
the sun, but it's a lot.  Before it were ever launched it might need to be 
processed from liquid to solid and would certainly require packaging 
designed to prevent dispersal of the waste WHEN a launch fails.  The 
packaging would so restrict the amount of waste that could be associated 
with a given launch that getting all the nuclear waste launched into the 
sun could easily drive a program costing billions of US dollars annually; 
and, if it's not already obvious, the amount of waste that could be 
launched per year would be so small that the program would never end - 
unless someone came to their senses and decided the effort was a complete 
waste of resources.


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