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Comment by matrix2003 | Hacker News Reader

matrix2003

It’s not quite that simple, though. Yucca Mountain was supposed to be extremely geologically stable, and people still couldn’t swallow that pill.

You still need some level of containment along with environmental studies and the additional complexity of excavating a large underground cavern. Even then, someone will be concerned (possibly rightfully so) about groundwater contamination. Fracking is a prime example of how connected that all can be.

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The problem with Yucca Mountain wasn't just the fact that they were storing waste there so much as the transportation of the waste through towns and cities. In this case, once the waste is created it is already in place to dispose of a mile underground solving another issue.

Mostly NIMBY problems that apply for the repository apply for transportation, but in lesser scale. Yucca was not as dry or geological stable as initially thought, and the requirements for "permanent" disposal are very stringent, so Yucca is not considered anymore for long-term storage.

I think the closer comparison would not be Yucca Mountain so much as deep bore hole research. You could essentially use the same equipment for boring your reactor hole to create disposal pits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_borehole_disposal#:~:text....

Maybe a breeder reactor would still be built to burn all this "waste" which is 90% fuel. Nuclear fission energy can become way cleaner when the political logjam around extracting and burning plutonium is unclogged.

I never really bought this tbh. Those transportation casks are insanely strong!

New Mexico recently had one explode due to improper materials used for absorption of liquid waste. To be frank I don't think it's worse than the chemical spills that happen routinely like the train in Ohio, but it isn't a small deal either.

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-mexico-nuclear-dump...

That must have been a lot of pressure! There are videos floating around I have seen of running a train engine into them at full speed.

Yeah, the testing is bonkers. But really nothing can withstand enough heat and pressure. Eventually your container just turns into a liquid. I love this video of the testing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmp3_CLx4VY

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