Author: Kiersten Sundell
A comment we recently received on social media:
“Storing nuclear waste isn’t exactly getting rid of it… it’s more like moving it to a secure location, right? It’s still going to be around forever.”
Well, yes. The way we typically dispose of nuclear waste IS by moving it to a secure location. But the same goes for any other type of waste, which is important to keep in mind.
Even for regular, non-hazardous trash, there is no true way of “getting rid of it.” You have the option to send it to a landfill where it will sit for 1,000 years until it biodegrades, or you can incinerate it and make it into carbon dioxide that pollutes the atmosphere and contributes to climate change. Neither option is particularly environmentally friendly, and either way, we’re pretty much dealing with it forever.
Hazardous chemical waste is disposed of in carefully engineered landfills just like nuclear waste is, but there is a LOT more of it — think of every single chemistry lab and factory on the planet. Chemical wastes will be hazardous to human health forever, meaning that they also need to be contained forever.
In the United States alone, there are over 37 million tons of hazardous waste managed every year, compared to 2,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. Chemical waste storage areas feature carefully constructed units that are reinforced with synthetic barriers, concrete, and bentonite clay, then sealed to protect groundwater and surface water resources — similar to what happens at Onkalo.
The main difference between industrial waste and waste from the nuclear industry is that nuclear waste is diligently tracked throughout its lifetime by national and international agencies like the NRC and IAEA to ensure that it is being managed responsibly and not impacting the environment or human health.
If you come up with a way to *poof* all waste products out of existence, you will get super rich and I’d love to hear it. For now, we either have to keep engineering fancy landfills or recycle the waste like France does.
Check out the full video by visiting our TikTok page.
