this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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We have multiple solutions for the trash, including the current 'hold it on site in nearly indestructible comically sized barrels.' The other solutions include storing it deep underground in much more efficient caskets (it would take powering the entire world's energy needs for centuries to fill one casket, current proposals have several dozen caskets being built and buried), recycler reactors which can reduce the energy of the fuel to being practically inert within a few years of useful operation (and that's even without JTEC ever coming to be), and simply using it for fuel on space probes.
Services are not to be profitable or unprofitable. They are not companies. It is a failure of capitalism that things essential to life are handled by private entities.
Also, Coal power generation isn't profitable without government subsidies of both Coal and the power plants, and they have no clean up of the massive radiation leaks they constantly emit.
Then why do we still search for a solution for long-term storage e.g. in Germany
and every solution has the problem, that the solution of the time seems to be incompatible with future usage?
Like all the barrels we just threw into a salt cave and broke open over time are now really expensive to retrieve
We're talking about time ranges, that are just too long for us to handle safe storage
All the stuff we hear about usage of waste - to at least make the waste of that a bit easier to handle - is still just experimental
Wouldn't this would be highly profitable to take all the waste for money and use it to generate energy?
And still, somehow we don't do it
That's not just politics, sorry
Edit: and needing to shut off reactors, because it gets too hot, doesn't really sound future proof
Because the Coal lobby in Germany currently controls half the Parliament. There is no 'search for a long term storage solution.' There is a 'lets immediately shut down all proposed long term storage solutions with no actual reason given.'
Germany's parliament has rejected:
This isn't 'searching for a solution,' this is 'coal money is more important than actually doing anything.'
You mean the barrels that the IAEA didn't approve for the environment Germany stored them in and were not recommended for long term off-site storage at all? The ones that Germany's nuclear oversight agency chose despite international and industry warnings?
Weird how that didn't work out for you.
Non-Portland-Concrete encased Titanium and Lead alloyed caskets have an average estimated decay lifespan close to the decay time of the sun, so no, not really.
It's actually not. Recycle reactors have been in use in China for close to a decade now, there's at least one commercialized product ready to be deployed in the US, and if the Amerisraeli empire would stop bombing Iran for two fucking seconds Iran's main design uses low grade uranium which would allow a 'second life' to most disposed fuel from western designs with minimal enrichment.
There is not one singular type of nuclear reactor. Molten Sodium reactors do not have this problem. Heck just more modern reactors in general don't have this problem. Fun fact did you know there are geothermal cooled reactors? Seems like a perfect solution there.
That didn't work out for me?
You don't need to get personal and I'm not even from Germany
And so you see where I'm coming from:
I'm for a clean energy mix and do hope, that we can produce some good storage options in the near future - molten salt sounds promising for example
But yeah, we can't solve all our energy issues with solar and wind, probably
I've just heard too many promises from the nuclear industry and stuff like, we only need to store it a few thousand (or even just a few hundred) years
I'm not trusting humanity enough, that we can do this in a safe manner
We fuck too much up in just a few years, to give me trust to plan for something for not even 100 years
Yeah, coal, gas etc are shit, I'm with you
But looking at building a nuclear reactor it's always like 2 billion and just 3 years of time - and then it's 15 billion and nearly 10 years
(Maybe I'm exaggerating here, but that's not too far off)
I don't see this to be a solution in the short term and I still think that we can't handle the danger good enough.
Also, I'm pretty sure, that we're heading for a world war with climate change.
Centralised power generation is an easy target as well
I'd really love to have a good solution here and I'm open for nuclear energy, but every few years I look into it and there is either much bullshit like Thorium reactors, that promise everything, but seem to...let's say only theoretical, or we face problems, I don't trust humanity in its current state with it
Edit: you even said yourself, that they didn't store the old waste according to regulations
Why should I trust authorities to do it now suddenly?
We don't really seem much wiser...