Theoretical Solution to Nuclear Waste - Self-Sinking Storagte

A friend shared with me the July 2010 issue of Popular Science magazine because it featured a series of articles on "The Future of the Environment" and I'm a known treehugger and science nerd. One little snippet of an article about Jesse Ausubel of Rockefeller University, who foresees a nuclear revival. What caught my eye was a very intriguing method of dealing with the resulting radioactive waste.

Ausubel cites Russian and British research into “self-sinking balls” of nuclear waste with shells most likely made of tungsten and heated by their radioactive contents to the point where, once disposed of in deep holes in the Earth’s crust, they would melt the surrounding lithosphere and bury themselves several miles deep. “Nuclear waste is hot and heavy,” he says. “The idea of self-sinking capsules takes the heat and gravity as positive attributes. The idea is quite straightforward.”

While the capsules remain theoretical for now, Michael Ojovan, an engineer at the University of Sheffield in England who has published extensively on the concept, says that in addition to removing waste, acoustic monitoring of the capsules could reveal data about the structure of the Earth’s interior. “The [scientific] importance of launching such a capsule is on the order of an expedition to Mars,” he says.

Wow. It buries itself miles underground. That's stinking cool.

I'm not certain of the legality of reposting PopSci's concept drawing of the process, but I figure if its linked via URL, properly cited (Kevin Hand), and accompanied by a pleasant and honest recommendation (PopSci is seriously an awesome magazine, go check it out) then they may not mind too much.