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A diagram of the proposed Deep Geological Respository. Image: OPG
The Great Lakes, from left to right: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario. Image: SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE
Dry Storage Containers are used to store the used uranium fuel rods from OPG-owned nuclear reactors. Image: OPG
Core-drilling equipment is prepared at the proposed site for the Deep Geologic Repository, at the Bruce nuclear site. Image: OPG
"The danger you run into, when you wait, is that you don't have as responsible a government to manage the material"
The WIPP uses a continuous miner to carve disposal rooms out of a salt formation almost a half mile below the surface. Image: WIPP/US Department of Energy
A radiation control technician stands by as contact-handled transuranic waste is disposed of underground in the WIPP. Image: WIPP/US Department of Energy
Sunrise near Lake Huron. Image: Christian Collins/Flickr
Not only is Yucca Mountain in a seismically and volcanically active region, Macfarlane told me, "it's an oxidizing environment," which would create potentially unstable conditions for nuclear waste. Yet, for political reasons, the once-dead plan seems to be back on the table.Canadian regulators, meanwhile, need to decide what to do with this country's nuclear waste, instead of just kicking the can down the road. At the earliest, the Kincardine DGR could become operational and begin to accept waste in 2026.For better or worse, our species has decided that nuclear energy and bombs are worth pursuing, in spite of the deadly waste created in the process. With the growing pressure of climate change, nuclear looks like an attractive option in many respects. But the price we pay is that we must deal with the waste. Stashing it in temporary, surface-level containers works for now, but this problem exists on a geologic timescale—and requires geologic solutions.If we want to continue consuming power at the rate that we do, we'll have to deal with it head-on."There are environmental costs and human costs to every kind [of energy]," including nuclear, Macfarlane told me. "There is no free lunch."Subscribe to Science Solved It, Motherboard's new show about the greatest mysteries that were solved by science.Read More: These Geniuses Want to Build Trump's Border Wall With Nuclear Waste
