A big concern here is ground water. If a tectonic plate movement damages the underground storage, the waste could contaminate ground water and it would be pretty much impossible to clean it up. One of the hardest challenges in my opinion of nuclear waste storage is the generational responsibility to keep it stored safely, although you could argue the same responsibility exists for landfills already.
These aren’t bins of glowing green ooze like in the cartoons. Most waste products are solid and are stored in heavy duty, shielded bins. Kyle Hill on YouTube created a really good video that demonstrated walking through a storage facility and literally hugging one of the bins. His rad meter was perfectly normal the whole time. He also examines other risks as well as the risks of other methods of power generation.
A big concern here is ground water. If a tectonic plate movement damages the underground storage, the waste could contaminate ground water and it would be pretty much impossible to clean it up. One of the hardest challenges in my opinion of nuclear waste storage is the generational responsibility to keep it stored safely, although you could argue the same responsibility exists for landfills already.
These aren’t bins of glowing green ooze like in the cartoons. Most waste products are solid and are stored in heavy duty, shielded bins. Kyle Hill on YouTube created a really good video that demonstrated walking through a storage facility and literally hugging one of the bins. His rad meter was perfectly normal the whole time. He also examines other risks as well as the risks of other methods of power generation.
Video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aUODXeAM-k
Here’s the one where he hugs the waste casks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhHHbgIy9jU