Why do we not fire all the earth's nuclear waste to the sun?

Question

Why do we not fire all the earth's nuclear waste to the sun?

Answer 1

The risk (while small) of a lauch accident (think of the space shuttle Chaleenger) is too much of a risk for this alternative.

Answer 2

Big problem if it goes wrong.  The atmosphere could be affected for 1000s of years.

Answer 3

cos it'll just come straight back to us- floating debris in space which was dumped decades ago still poses a danger to us today, it floats around and is hazardus to other space crafts in the area (could damage them) or if it does get back close enough to earth, it could be pulled in to our atmosphere and cause a bad atomic reaction.

Answer 4

Two really good answers to this question.

The first, is that we don't know what it will do, nor how it will affect our sun.

The second, is that this is the only sun we have and we don't know what it will do or how it will affect our sun!!!

Answer 5

Oh great, we've polluted the Earth up to the eyeballs so let's move on to the rest of the solar system.

The amount of fuel it would take to do that would be ridiculous, plus we have no idea what effect it might have on the Sun.

Answer 6

The price to ship it is too great we would all go bankrupt.

Answer 7

Because to get to space therest he problem of the massive amounts of flammable liquid which has a tendency to explode seconds after take off from earth, mix that with nuclear waste, and winds at any level of the atmosphere and you most probably end up with quite a mess

Answer 8

weight/cost ratio.Cheaper to bury.The sun wouldn't even hiccup,though

Answer 9

too costly, who would pay ?

Answer 10

The cost in equipment and fuel to get even an ounce of weight away from the gravity field of the earth,  is thousands of dollars per ounce.  

  Nuclear waste is depleted uranium or plutonium.  It is denser (pounds per cubic inch) than gold or lead, therefore a small amount is very heavy.    You may believe that it could be done cheaper, but the reality is, that although some dollars might be shaved off the top,  the overall total would still be in the same ballpark.



It would also be very, very dangerous (imagine a load of it blowing up like the space shuttle in the upper atmosphere. Everybody in the downstream wind would be screwed and get cancer).    

A better solution would be to spend the money it takes to do this on research to develop fusion reactor power.   Nuclear power based on fusion would have almost no radioactive by-products, is far more efficient, and would probably be independent of the nuclear fuel rods current required for the existing fission reactors in use today.   The theory is sound, and it's possible that a working reactor could be developed in a reasonable (20 years?) time frame if enough emphasis were placed on it.    Unfortunately, right now, there is not.  

- Kevin

Answer 11

Well--we don't have the ability to do so (yet).  Granted, we can build rockets tha tcould do the job--but only for a small payload.  And the cost for any large amount would be prohibitive at this time.  Trying to get rid of all nuclear waste that way would bankrupt the USA.

But that doesn't mean its a bad idea--in fact scientists have studied this idea--finding someplace in space (not necessarily the sun) to serve as a waste disposal site.  Its going to be dacades before we have the kind of spacecraft we'll need to do this--but that waste isn't going anywhere (that being the problem!).    

BTW--for a number of reasons, dumping into the sun would be difficult.  It would be mucch easier to pick a good-sized Near-Earth asteroid (that has an orbit that won't ever intersect earth's).  Just as good--and a lot cheaper.  Plus if anybody ever figures out a use for the stuff, they'll have a nice supply built up.

Answer 12

you must be american

i think your question is why dont we make the worlds largest nuclear weapon

Answer 13

because that would cost billions

Answer 14

Good question!  

Hang on, I've got an empty pork scratchings' bag that can go with it.