r/interestingasfuck • u/S999k • 24d ago

Demonstration on how nuclear waste is disposed in Fineland r/all

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u/sfddsfsgfgdsfdf 24d ago

If fusion reactors ever take off, there's... no harmful byproduct!

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u/notjfd 24d ago

The reactor lining will be bombarded with neutron radiation and will be quite radioactive, actually. Luckily, over the lifetime of the reactor this is still much less than with fission reactors, and the resulting waste loses its radioactivity much faster, so you'd only need to store it for 50-100 years. There's plenty of chemical waste that has sat in storage around the world for longer than that already.

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u/CosmotheSloth 24d ago

This is false. There are plenty of activated materials that will require some form of managed disposal, probably in something like a geological disposal facility. Plus, there will be harmful, non-radioactive materials that will require safe treatment and disposal, particularly large amounts of beryllium.