alt Hacker News> We also know how to get rid of it entirely, leaving only material that will decay to safe levels within hundreds of years
In the interests of fairness, is like a citation showing that
> We also know how to get rid of it entirely, leaving only material that will decay to safe levels within hundreds of years
In the interests of fairness, is like a citation showing that
It's called "closed [nuclear] fuel cycle". Just google it. I studied it at a university.
TLDR; if you have enough fast neutrons, you can transmute anything into safe materials. Fast neutron reactors produce enough, classic PWR reactors do not. The only commercial fast reactor right now is in Russia.
If at some point humanity decides to stop making reactors altogether, it's still possible to burn the waste with particle accelerators. It'll take hundreds of years, but waste won't be going anywhere.
And finally, if commercial fusion reactors ever happen, they can also be used as neutron sources to trivially burn up all the waste.