NewScientist (15 April 2017) reports the Trump Administration is looking at Yucca Mountain for burying nuclear waste – and that the Department of Energy is developing a Plan B:
So the Department of Energy is working on an alternative. It plans to bury the spent fuel in hundreds of narrow shafts drilled 5 kilometres down into solid granite across the US. The technique has yet to be tested, but the idea is that the waste would melt surrounding rock and then slowly solidify into a granite “coffin”.
The first test drilling site is set to be announced next month.
I wonder how “full’ each shaft will be filled with nuclear waste – and what happens if someone finds a use for nuclear waste?
