Ideally, we should simply launch our waste into the Sun and quiet frankly given the money wasted on WIPP from start up to date, the Sun option is and was a more economically feasible plan with the benefit of helping to fund space development as well. New Mexico is already rich in space endeavors. Perhaps looking to space technologies will be the solution New Mexico is seeking for their state in jobs, technology, safety and public health with applications far reaching beyond just nuclear waste management. WIPP could still be used as a repository staging area in terms of storing / staging it for a space dump into the Sun. I would imagine both SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and even newer start ups would be eager for those contracts and opportunities to work hand in hand with the nuclear industry given nuclear technology is what will make long term space travel possible. If space is not an option to citizens of New Mexico then in my opinion, the newer modeling for five mile deep core burial in the ocean floor is a safer way to dump high level waste and any waste for that matter rather than WIPP long term. WIPP was a good experiment however it has failed to meet its mission statement as a long term repository and the reality of that fact has to be understood for science to progress successfully. Clinging to a square wheel will never get us anywhere. Transitioning WIPP into a more useful cog in the wheel of the big picture of all things nuclear is its only option now.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 10:19:40 +0000
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