Re:Nuclear energy is clean
by slavik81 on Monday August 01, 2022 @05:00AM
(#32303569)
Spent fuel will remain toxic forever. Uranium and plutonium are heavy metals. They will have to be treated as dangerous substances from now until the end of time, much like lead or mercury.
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Northern Sweden is known for its iron mines. What people might not know is that if you live anywhere near where such mining has occurred (many miles away from the actually mining site), it is strongly recommended that people have detectors for radium. Obviously, water that is close to mining sites is generally not advisable to drink. Mining just bring up a lot of toxic things that the human body react badly with.
What percentage of the earth’s crust is lead? How does that compare to spent fuel?
Approximately 0.0013% and 0%, respectively. I'm not sure what you're getting at.
My point is that we already deal with many substances that are toxic forever. Something about the danger reducing over the course of thousands of years seems to make people more concerned about the future than when the danger is permanent.