Finland is on the verge of becoming the first nation to bury spent nuclear fuel rods deep underground for the long term. Erika Benke visits the Onkalo site to find out more.
I actually find it pretty hilarious when people are so vehemently against burying nuclear waste - then you mention Oklo to them and they just go all quiet.
I think criticisms of nuclear waste disposal are 100% valid. Finland is the only place I’ve heard of doing more than giving theoretical lip service to long term disposal. It’s been 4000 years since we were building pyramids in Egypt, yet people act like safely storing spent nuclear waste for 100k years is something trivial. Aside from the cost of building new nuclear plants compared with the quickly dropping prices of renewables makes the argument for nuclear power even more tenuous. No doubt it (nuclear) is far better for the planet and people than coal or gas powered plants, but that’s a tired, outdated argument.
Wait, people are against it? Why on earth? Probably the safest place to store that stuff is deep underground, at least anywhere where there’s no seismic fuckery going on
Yeah exactly. Mostly it’s the “we’re creating all this dangerous waste and leaving it for our children to deal with” 🤦♂️ In any case, buried or not, with nuclear waste we at least have good understanding of it, have ways to measure how dangerous the levels are, etc, unlike all the polution from fossil fuels that everyone seems to just be content with.
Mostly it’s the “we’re creating all this dangerous waste and leaving it for our children to deal with” 🤦♂️
the way that this specific externality has been blown up into Why We Can’t Do Nuclear in the popular conscience but the same has not been done for the horrifying impacts of pollution for coal and natural gas is one of those truly anger-inducing things, especially since many of the people who popularized it and continue to promote it should know better.
I actually find it pretty hilarious when people are so vehemently against burying nuclear waste - then you mention Oklo to them and they just go all quiet.
I think criticisms of nuclear waste disposal are 100% valid. Finland is the only place I’ve heard of doing more than giving theoretical lip service to long term disposal. It’s been 4000 years since we were building pyramids in Egypt, yet people act like safely storing spent nuclear waste for 100k years is something trivial. Aside from the cost of building new nuclear plants compared with the quickly dropping prices of renewables makes the argument for nuclear power even more tenuous. No doubt it (nuclear) is far better for the planet and people than coal or gas powered plants, but that’s a tired, outdated argument.
Wait, people are against it? Why on earth? Probably the safest place to store that stuff is deep underground, at least anywhere where there’s no seismic fuckery going on
Yeah exactly. Mostly it’s the “we’re creating all this dangerous waste and leaving it for our children to deal with” 🤦♂️ In any case, buried or not, with nuclear waste we at least have good understanding of it, have ways to measure how dangerous the levels are, etc, unlike all the polution from fossil fuels that everyone seems to just be content with.
the way that this specific externality has been blown up into Why We Can’t Do Nuclear in the popular conscience but the same has not been done for the horrifying impacts of pollution for coal and natural gas is one of those truly anger-inducing things, especially since many of the people who popularized it and continue to promote it should know better.
Right? Like where do people think we dug up the stuff from in the first place?