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24 years of nuclear waste from the Maine Yankee powerplant (infosec.pub)

submitted 7 months ago by Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net to c/justpost@lemmy.world

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Operated from 1972 to 1996 and produced 119 billion kilowatt hours of energy

Dry cask storage is a method for safely storing spent nuclear fuel after it has cooled for several years in water pools. Once the fuel rods are no longer producing extreme heat, they are sealed inside massive steel and concrete casks that provide both radiation shielding and passive cooling through natural air circulation—no water is needed. Each cask can weigh over 100 tons and is engineered to resist earthquakes, floods, fire, and even missile strikes. This makes it a robust interim solution until permanent deep geological repositories are available. The casks are expected to last 50–100 years, though the fuel inside remains radioactive for thousands. Dry cask storage reduces reliance on crowded spent fuel pools, provides a secure above-ground option, and buys time for nations to develop long-term disposal strategies. In essence, it’s a durable, self-contained “vault” for nuclear waste

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[–] merdaverse@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

How much waste does solar produce for the same amount of energy to be delivered? A quick calculation from a very generous 30k kWh per solar panel lifetime results in almost 4 million solar panels for same amount of energy. How much of that waste would end up in a garbage heap? What is the environment cost to mine the materials for those solar panels? The environmental cost of the land needed to deploy them?

Saying "it's like photosynthesis" is the most useless, reductionist analysis you could possibly do.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 7 months ago

The environmental cost of the land needed to deploy them?

I did some quick maths a while ago and figured out that it's approximately 3% of our total land use.