• dgmib@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    For over a century, the standard way we’ve been disposing of hazardous materials that can’t be easily recycled is to permanently bury it. We’re doing it with thousands of tonnes of hazardous materials daily.

    A nuclear power plant only generates about 3 cubic meters of hazardous nuclear waste per year.

    At the typical sizes we’re currently building them, you need 50-100 solar or wind farms to match the electricity output of a single nuclear reactor.

    When we eventually dispose of the solar panels from those game we literally end up with more toxic waste in heavy metals like cadmium than the nuclear power plant produced.

    No solution is perfect.

    But contrary to the propaganda, nuclear is one of our cleanest options.

    • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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      1 month ago

      For over a century, the standard way we’ve been disposing of hazardous materials […]

      Until 1994, one standard way of disposing of radioactive waste was throwing it into the ocean. There are at least 90.000 containers that got dumped along the shores of the USA alone. (Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altlasten_in_den_Meeren#Atommüllverklappung )

      I’d agree that “No solution is perfect” qualifies for the history of nuclear energy.

      • dgmib@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Yes that’s correct.

        To be more clear, nuclear waste is only a small percentage of the hazardous waste we’ve been disposing of by permanently burying it.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      We’re [burying] thousands of tonnes of hazardous materials daily.

      Are we though?

      About 400,000 tonnes of used fuel has been discharged from reactors worldwide, but only about one-third has been reprocessed.