MadSci Network: Astronomy |
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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