Re:U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants on the moon, Mars
by GekkePrutser on Sunday July 26, 2020 @02:19PM
(#23958983)
This is exactly the issue I see with nuclear. We're creating dangerous waste products that last tens of thousands of years (normal nuclear - I know RTGs don't stay radioactive nearly as long!), and are easily weaponised.
Yet on the other hand we can't even keep a country stable for more than a few decades. The soviet union fell into disarray that time leading to all kinds of incidents, and we had a major world war only 75 years ago which is nothing on nuclear waste time scales.
One way or another this will bite humanity in the back in the future. If it isn't by a malicious future actor weaponising it, it'll be by neglected nuclear waste storage facilities that last much shorter than the waste itself.
For another example of things that can happen see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident . That one was medical in origin but the same can happen to nuclear waste when not adequately protected of which there is a lot more.
Yet on the other hand we can't even keep a country stable for more than a few decades. The soviet union fell into disarray that time leading to all kinds of incidents, and we had a major world war only 75 years ago which is nothing on nuclear waste time scales.
One way or another this will bite humanity in the back in the future. If it isn't by a malicious future actor weaponising it, it'll be by neglected nuclear waste storage facilities that last much shorter than the waste itself.
For another example of things that can happen see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident . That one was medical in origin but the same can happen to nuclear waste when not adequately protected of which there is a lot more.