this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
72 points (98.6% liked)
United States | News & Politics
8184 readers
512 users here now
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I endorse nuclear power and am enjoying the second look it is getting now but as a geologist I ask where the nuclear waste will go. No one ever wants to talk about it and there is really easy solution, the deep subsurface (miles below the ground). It’s safe, cheap, and Finland has shown how it’s done.
This is part of a broader issue in preparing our next generations for jobs of the future. To build out this infrastructure you need smart technical people to make it work and ask the tough questions, but I know this administration doesn’t care about that.
The solutions exist and the USA has been aware of those solutions since they invented nuclear power in the 50's. Unfortunately Capitalism doesn't allow long-term planning so almost every time a long-term storage solution has been proposed, or ever funded, a few elections later it get's defunded to the praised of misguided environmentalists and the green-washing fossil fuel lobby.
The one I know about the most was Yucca Mountain which got defunded. But at least WiPP is back open. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant
Yea Yucca mountain is a sad tale. A lack of community engagement and politics ruined what was other wise a geotechnically sound design. Having a national repository for a nation as large as the US might be impractical in retrospect especially involving interstate rail transport. I think local containment of waste is key to reduce shipping costs and trailing the waste through developed areas. That requires planning a nuclear site near a geological repository which might not be part of design plans.
Also that NM repository I haven’t heard of, will be reading more
Look I hear you, the way the US does nuclear power has a lot of issues, it's really an industry that requires strong state backing like what China and Russia have going on.