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From: rcd@opus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: nuclear waste products
Message-ID: <453@opus.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 5-May-84 02:20:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: opus.453
Posted: Sat May  5 02:20:57 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 9-May-84 01:16:10 EDT
References: <454@burl.UUCP>
Organization: NBI, Boulder
Lines: 18

<>
>With regards to the current debate about a safe way to get rid of
>nuclear wastes:
>
>Has anybody givin serious thought to launching it into space and
>tossing it at the sun?  Are there practical considerations that
>would prohibit this?

Yes, it's been considered seriously - and just as seriously rejected.  One
factor is that uranium, plutonium, etc. are obnoxiously heavy - almost
twice the density of lead.  It's expensive to launch heavy payloads,
especially all the way to escape velocity.  But the much more serious
objection is this:  What if the rocket fails?  You just can't afford to let
the thing blow up on the launch pad or after it's only gone a few dozen
miles.
-- 
...Relax...don't worry...have a homebrew.		Dick Dunn
{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd				(303) 444-5710 x3086