> > As James said a while back (and I'm paraphrasing), "just take the
> > waste back
> > to the mining site, and spread it thin". Nuclear waste is less
> > radioactive
> > in the long term, than uranium ore.
> 
> Sounds good. Not true. Doesn't work.
> Some version MAY be able to be made to work.
> Someday. Maybe.
> You can get more waste out than starter product.
> The waste products are in many cases much much much ... much worse
> than the raw materials. You could (arguably) add suitably ground and
> processed yellow cake to your food at say a 5% content and eat it
> indefinitely and possibly not suffer too badly, apart from taste and
> texture. There's any amount of things that come out of a reactor that
> that is not true for. And while ""nature"" put the stuff in the ground
> in a manner where it largely stays put, there really really isn't any
> guarantee that anyone will give you and die for (but you may) that WE
> can do the same. Solve the waste problem and I'll join the cheering
> squad and the saluting line. Until then I'm wry of greedy men, human
> nature and Murphy and Darwin.
> 
> >> Worse, yellowcake (raw uranium ore) is found cheaply in
> >> Nigeria... another
> >> Islamic country. Think about it; its $70 oil all over again
> 
> No problem. Everywhere is liable to be an Islamic country (or, at
> least, that's certainly the aim) by the time it really matters :-).
> 
> But eg Australia has 'quite a lot' and I recently heard that one of
> the Pacific Islands has too (hard as I find to believe that).


There's always Synrock, which pops up every so often.  Works (mix waste with
ceramic, bake & serve), but is either a bit tricky to do or is a bit pricey,
so not many takers.  I'm assuming the latter.

Australia has over 25% (I've seen 40%) of the worlds uranium.  Current
theory is to dig it up, sell it overseas, take the waste back & bury it
where it came from.  Not sure how this solves Australian energy needs, but
the lights in China's will still work.

Building a reactor for power is getting mentioned, and by a few hippies too.
Of course, one was supposed to have been built ages ago.  That was the prize
for letting the British make South Australia glow in the dark, but the
Americans didn't think it was a good idea.  Tsk.  They gave Iran one, why
not us?

I wonder how Synrock warm gets.  We could bury it all in Tasmania, that
place needs all the heat it can get.

Tony

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