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Ask A Scientist©
Astronomy Archive
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Nuclear Waste In Space
Author: meehan
Text: Nuclear waste disposal in space? Some of my students (fourth
graders) want to know why we do not just send nuclear waste into space and
blow it up, or into the sun. Any ideas?
Response #: 1 of 2
Author: John Hawley
Text: It is a great idea, the problem is how to you get it there. It
is very expensive to launch anything into space and there is THOUSANDS of tons
of nuclear waste!
Response #: 2 of 2
Author: Ronald Winther
Text: Another obvious problem is safety. What if the rocket should
malfunction after liftoff? It might plummet back to Earth, quite probably
leading to catastrophic nuclear contamination at the crash site.
NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators.
Argonne National Laboratory, Division of Educational Programs, Harold Myron, Ph.D., Division Director.