So, Fukushima...

[Nephew Twiddleton]

In space, nuclear has a few different applications. As Dok said, solar panels degrade. But also, if we ever do start branching out, we wouldn't be able to rely on solar power the further we got from the sun. Also, it's probable that that uranium deposits exist on other worlds and moons, making it a local resource. It could also be used for propulsion. Theoretically, we have the capability of within a lifetime interstellar travel using nuclear pulse propulsion (once a safe distance from Earth, naturally), which basically involves exploding a lot of bombs behind your ship to get to about 10% light speed.

[Doktor Howl]

That's a good point. The NRC doesn't come up with disposal plans, do they? They just approve plans submitted by contractors? So it would be up to the contractors to come up with a functioning disposal proposal? I don't typically find the Free Market adequate to handle these kinds of things, either.

And then there is the issue of location, which seems to be largely decided by who is desperate enough (or overridable enough) to accept waste that will make vast regions lethally toxic for ninety thousand years.

All of this is kind of reinforcing my original opinion on the matter...

Yep.

Humans can't be trusted with anything more dangerous than silly string.

And I'd keep the silly string away from most of them.

[Doktor Howl]

In space, nuclear has a few different applications. As Dok said, solar panels degrade. But also, if we ever do start branching out, we wouldn't be able to rely on solar power the further we got from the sun. Also, it's probable that that uranium deposits exist on other worlds and moons, making it a local resource. It could also be used for propulsion. Theoretically, we have the capability of within a lifetime interstellar travel using nuclear pulse propulsion (once a safe distance from Earth, naturally), which basically involves exploding a lot of bombs behind your ship to get to about 10% light speed.

That will never, ever work.  Ask me why.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Apparently this company: http://www.kurion.com/index.html embeds nuclear waste in glass. But only byproducts, not spent fuel rods.

Also, apparently Yucca Mountain has been terminated. http://www.reid.senate.gov/issues/yucca.cfm

So, sixty years later, we still have no solution for the majority of our nuclear waste. Not even a bad solution; no solution at all.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

In space, nuclear has a few different applications. As Dok said, solar panels degrade. But also, if we ever do start branching out, we wouldn't be able to rely on solar power the further we got from the sun. Also, it's probable that that uranium deposits exist on other worlds and moons, making it a local resource. It could also be used for propulsion. Theoretically, we have the capability of within a lifetime interstellar travel using nuclear pulse propulsion (once a safe distance from Earth, naturally), which basically involves exploding a lot of bombs behind your ship to get to about 10% light speed.

That will never, ever work.  Ask me why.

No.

Ok, I'm too curious.

Why?

[Cainad (dec.)]

Oh oh oh, lemme guess this one!

Spaceships carrying nukes = Mass fuckery

[Doktor Howl]

In space, nuclear has a few different applications. As Dok said, solar panels degrade. But also, if we ever do start branching out, we wouldn't be able to rely on solar power the further we got from the sun. Also, it's probable that that uranium deposits exist on other worlds and moons, making it a local resource. It could also be used for propulsion. Theoretically, we have the capability of within a lifetime interstellar travel using nuclear pulse propulsion (once a safe distance from Earth, naturally), which basically involves exploding a lot of bombs behind your ship to get to about 10% light speed.

That will never, ever work.  Ask me why.

No.

Ok, I'm too curious.

Why?

Okay, I'm gonna put you in an aluminum can with a complete life support system, etc.  Mind you, our life support systems aren't the most robust things in the world.  They can't be, by their very nature...Remember, the Apollo 13 mission failed due to a $5 solenoid, and that was a SIMPLE system, designed to last 2 weeks.

Then we're gonna strap a giant iron plate to the back of it, and off you go.

Every so often, we're going to beat the living blue Jesus out of the plate, with a nuke detonated some distance behind the spacecraft.  The radiation won't get through the plate, but it's going to vibrate like a church bell, and maybe flex a little.

That vibration is going to transmit, to some small degree, into the can.  The can holding your life support system, which is ALSO being irregularly accelerated, comparable to dropping a few pounds of weight on each and every component - irregularly - in your system.

Good news:  You're gonna go like a bat out of hell.

Bad news:  You died of asphyxiation sometime at the beginning of the flight.

[Doktor Howl]

So, sixty years later, we still have no solution for the majority of our nuclear waste. Not even a bad solution; no solution at all.

We have a solution:  Put 'em on the roof.  Generators on the ground.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

In space, nuclear has a few different applications. As Dok said, solar panels degrade. But also, if we ever do start branching out, we wouldn't be able to rely on solar power the further we got from the sun. Also, it's probable that that uranium deposits exist on other worlds and moons, making it a local resource. It could also be used for propulsion. Theoretically, we have the capability of within a lifetime interstellar travel using nuclear pulse propulsion (once a safe distance from Earth, naturally), which basically involves exploding a lot of bombs behind your ship to get to about 10% light speed.

That will never, ever work.  Ask me why.

No.

Ok, I'm too curious.

Why?

Okay, I'm gonna put you in an aluminum can with a complete life support system, etc.  Mind you, our life support systems aren't the most robust things in the world.  They can't be, by their very nature...Remember, the Apollo 13 mission failed due to a $5 solenoid, and that was a SIMPLE system, designed to last 2 weeks.

Then we're gonna strap a giant iron plate to the back of it, and off you go.

Every so often, we're going to beat the living blue Jesus out of the plate, with a nuke detonated some distance behind the spacecraft.  The radiation won't get through the plate, but it's going to vibrate like a church bell, and maybe flex a little.

That vibration is going to transmit, to some small degree, into the can.  The can holding your life support system, which is ALSO being irregularly accelerated, comparable to dropping a few pounds of weight on each and every component - irregularly - in your system.

Good news:  You're gonna go like a bat out of hell.

Bad news:  You died of asphyxiation sometime at the beginning of the flight.

Damn. 

And here I was worrying about small grains of dust puncturing the hull at .10 c.

[Forsooth]

...we're gonna strap a giant iron plate to the back of it, and off you go.

Every so often, we're going to beat the living blue Jesus out of the plate, with a nuke detonated some distance behind the spacecraft.  The radiation won't get through the plate, but it's going to vibrate like a church bell, and maybe flex a little.

That vibration is going to transmit, to some small degree, into the can.  The can holding your life support system, which is ALSO being irregularly accelerated, comparable to dropping a few pounds of weight on each and every component - irregularly - in your system.

Good news:  You're gonna go like a bat out of hell.

Bad news:  You died of asphyxiation sometime at the beginning of the flight.

When I first heard of the Orion project(s) when i was maybe 5 years old, I couldn't believe that people had seriously considered it.

They'd be better off just cutting a hole in a reactor, and using it like a really shitty ion emission drive

[Doktor Howl]

In space, nuclear has a few different applications. As Dok said, solar panels degrade. But also, if we ever do start branching out, we wouldn't be able to rely on solar power the further we got from the sun. Also, it's probable that that uranium deposits exist on other worlds and moons, making it a local resource. It could also be used for propulsion. Theoretically, we have the capability of within a lifetime interstellar travel using nuclear pulse propulsion (once a safe distance from Earth, naturally), which basically involves exploding a lot of bombs behind your ship to get to about 10% light speed.

That will never, ever work.  Ask me why.

No.

Ok, I'm too curious.

Why?

Okay, I'm gonna put you in an aluminum can with a complete life support system, etc.  Mind you, our life support systems aren't the most robust things in the world.  They can't be, by their very nature...Remember, the Apollo 13 mission failed due to a $5 solenoid, and that was a SIMPLE system, designed to last 2 weeks.

Then we're gonna strap a giant iron plate to the back of it, and off you go.

Every so often, we're going to beat the living blue Jesus out of the plate, with a nuke detonated some distance behind the spacecraft.  The radiation won't get through the plate, but it's going to vibrate like a church bell, and maybe flex a little.

That vibration is going to transmit, to some small degree, into the can.  The can holding your life support system, which is ALSO being irregularly accelerated, comparable to dropping a few pounds of weight on each and every component - irregularly - in your system.

Good news:  You're gonna go like a bat out of hell.

Bad news:  You died of asphyxiation sometime at the beginning of the flight.

Damn. 

And here I was worrying about small grains of dust puncturing the hull at .10 c.

That's a problem that any interstellar craft would have to deal with, with the exception of ram scoops, which WANT the debris.

And it isn't just dust.  There's one atom of hydrogen per cubic meter in deep space, more or less...Get close enough to the speed of light, and there's no difference between that hydrogen atom and a million ton cannonball.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

So, sixty years later, we still have no solution for the majority of our nuclear waste. Not even a bad solution; no solution at all.

We have a solution:  Put 'em on the roof.  Generators on the ground.

In the pool?

On the roof?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

God wants us stuck here is what im taking away from this.

[Doktor Howl]

So, sixty years later, we still have no solution for the majority of our nuclear waste. Not even a bad solution; no solution at all.

We have a solution:  Put 'em on the roof.  Generators on the ground.

In the pool?

On the roof?

Welcome to the Fukushima Plant!  Pool's on the roof!

[Doktor Howl]

God wants us stuck here is what im taking away from this.

No, he just wants a smarter monkey first.