Could We Dispose of Nuclear Waste in Space?



Nuclear waste products are bad news wherever we put it. But wouldn't it be safer for humans if we got it as far away as possible? Sure, but that's not as easy as it may sound. Kurzgesagt explains why we haven't done it already. First, it would be expensive and we don't have the infrastructure. We might be able to overcome those mundane problems in the future, opening up several scenarios for launching nuclear waste into space. But in every one of those scenarios, the danger involved is terrifying.

The first scenario I thought of is one they don't even address. We launch nuclear waste into deep space, and it is eventually intercepted by extraterrestrials. Their response would be, "You spent years and billions of dollars on space exploration and this is what you send us? This means war!"

This video is 9.5 minutes long; the rest is an ad.


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"Hey should we blast more waste into space, when there's already 100,000 pieces of space waste that will never be recovered?" Ya no, we shouldn't. No.
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I dunno. I get frustrated by experts who say "it can't be done". There's a new centrifugal launch system that's been tested/in testing would would reduce costs. And costs go up the heavier things are, so why not smaller cheaper "disposable" rockets.
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