logoalt Hacker News

apiyesterday at 1:34 PM1 replyview on HN

Economically absurd, much more expensive than reprocessing or fast waste burning reactors.


Replies

pfdietzyesterday at 2:20 PM

I don't think that's the case, if launch costs are low enough. The options you describe there are quite expensive. Reprocessing costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000/kg. Even fast reactor have trouble disposing of the seven very long lived fission products. A fully reusable launcher might get costs down to $10/kg to LEO. Even if one had to wrap the waste in 10x its mass in launch armor this could be much cheaper than reprocessing.

show 2 replies