Why don’t we send Nuclear Waste into Space?🤔
Seems like a very good idea…Maybe not…Read to learn why?
There are 439 operational nuclear reactors in the world right now [Ref].
A typical 1 GW nuclear reactor produces 25–30 tons of nuclear waste yearly [Ref].
About 400,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste has been generated so far by nuclear reactors worldwide [Ref].
What is Nuclear Waste?
Nuclear waste contains objects such as gloves, protective clothing, tools, etc which may become radiactive as they are used to handle radioactive materials.
More hazadrous would be materials that were close to the reactor core such as metal equipment, concrete, etc.
The most danegorus radioactive waste is the leftover from the core itself and is most challenging to handle.
How is nuclear waste usually handled?
Usually, radioactive waste is stored underground in large containers with proper shielding, so that there is no leakage of radioactive material and the radiation output can be minimised [Ref].
Researchers are still exploring various ways to dispose off nuclear waste.
What can we do to get rid of this radioactive waste?
Can we send it to space?
Launching stuff to space is expensive
It costs around $20,000 to send about 1 kg of payload in space [Ref].
This means if we send the radioactive waste of a single nuclear reactor every year into space, it will cost 600 Million USD.
And this is for a single nuclear reactor. 😱
Do I need to say more?
We do not have enough rockets
In 2021, humans launched 133 rockets into space [Ref].
If we use all of them, we can transport about 6650 tons of nuclear waste into space, considering each rocket's payload capacity of 50 tons.
It is half of the nuclear waste generated by nuclear reactors worldwide in a single year. 🤷♂️
Now calculate the number of rockets required to send all that nuclear waste into space. Don’t forget the waste already generated by nuclear reactors over the past years.
Rockets don't always go into space
In 2021, humans launched 133 rockets into space [Ref].
Very Good. 👏
How many launches were attempted?
144
7.6% of launches failed😦
Imagine one such rocket carrying tons of radioactive waste falling into a city.
No thanks. We don't want another Hiroshima. 😥
Send it to the Sun
Even if we could build enough rockets and manage to get all of them into space, where will we send them?
Why not send it to the Sun?
Surprisingly,
it is hard to send things to the Sun 😦
Earth has a large orbital velocity, and everything launched from the earth also has this orbital velocity.
To make a thing fall into the Sun, we need to get rid of this orbital motion, which is hard [Ref].
This can be the topic of another story.😁
In short, sending tons of radioactive nuclear waste into space is not a good idea.
We need to find another way.😇
This story was inspired by Kurzgesagt.
