WASTE
One of the most powerful arguments against nuclear energy is the nuclear waste issue. Radioactive waste ranges from "tailings" from uranium mining, which contaminate large areas, to one of the most dangerous substances on earth: high-level waste from reactors and reprocessing.
Nuclear waste remains dangerous for tens of thousands of years and should be controlled and kept isolated from humans and the environment for this very long period. Imagine how the world looked like 10,000 years ago and try to answer the question of whether a waste disposal site can guarantee a safe storage for much longer periods.
Many countries have studied the possibility of burying nuclear waste in deep geological formations. But burying it at great depth cannot guarantee that the waste containers will never leak. Over that long period the waste will leak from the site and contaminate the underground environment.
No country in the world has found a solution to the nuclear waste problem. Sites that are selected for the storage of any kind of radioactive waste are often met with local resistance. WISE supports these groups in their struggle, with information on the problems of waste storage, experiences of storage worldwide, with direct support for actions and by emphasizing the main source of the waste: nuclear energy!
New in the debate is the hope of the nuclear industry to make waste harmless by transmutation. Scientists are studying the possibility of reducing the period for which the nuclear waste remains lethally dangerous by irradiating it in nuclear reactors - an idea that might sound feasible from a theoretical point of view but which is in fact expensive, dangerous, and complex.
Transmutation must be considered as hype by the nuclear industry trying to promise us that the nuclear waste problem could be solved (and to keep their research budgets alive). Even transmutation specialists admit that transmutation is extremely expensive. In our WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor we follow the debate on transmutation.
Further reading