

Yet Another Modest Proposal: The Roentgen Standard (1980) - gwern
http://www.larryniven.net/stories/roentgen.shtml

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dmckeon
While the desert dump/evolution in action approach may seem appealing to some,
recent experience in the Bay Area suggests that any metal of any possible
value - the fence, signs, and any reclaimable parts of the waste - drums or
other containers, any iron, steel, copper, brass, etc. - would quickly be
collected and recycled.

Recall an incident from the 1980s where widespread contamination was revealed
only by happenstance - a wrong turn during a delivery of rebar at Los Alamos:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_radiation_acc...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_civilian_radiation_accidents#1980s)

[http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/accidents/juarez.htm](http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/accidents/juarez.htm)

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arethuza
If you did want to dispose of waste by attaching it to subducting plate you
would probably need to drill down through any sediments as these tend to get
scraped off by the non-subducting plate to form an accretionary prism:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretionary_wedge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretionary_wedge)

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ChuckMcM
I remember when I first read this that I was struck not by the silliness, but
by the way in which a variety of issues with "cash" were affected by the
properties of the cash itself. (I particularly liked the bank robber coming
into the bank in a lead suit) but noted the bank couldn't keep all that money
in one place anyway.

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michaelwww
And now we know why Larry Niven hasn't won any awards for humor.

~~~
IvyMike
Aw, c'mon. This _should_ have won an award:
[http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html](http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html)

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michaelwww
I rest my case ;-)

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sytelus
For a second I thought this proposal was brilliant:

 _Drop the radioactive wastes, in canisters, in to the seabed folds where the
continental plates are sliding under each other. The radioactives would
disappear back into the magma from which they came._

Until I realized, this radioactive stuff would get vaporized and eventually
escape in to atmosphere and ocean. Wouldn't that be much worse than getting
spilled on land?

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Sharlin
* You underestimate the size of the Earth or overestimate the amount of the waste or the effects of radiation. Most of the nuclear waste could be just ground to dust and spread into oceans and the atmosphere, were it not a political suicide. The high-activity waste that's a real problem, on the other hand, decays into virtual inertness in a few decades.

* The lithospheric magma is not hot enough to vaporize or even liquify solid capsules of nuclear waste. Even the magma itself isn't liquid, just ductile solid.

* We're talking about subduction zones where the underlying magma conveyor belt is going _down_. It isn't going to return any time soon, giving plenty of time for the actually dangerous high-activity stuff to decay.

~~~
saalweachter
Actually, that could provide really valuable scientific data.

Refine the nuclear waste to separate out the different radioactive elements
and isotopes. Drop a distinct cocktail (of short-lived and long-lived
isotopes, not reusing any isotopes between cocktails) into each crevice.
Measure subsequent outflow from around the world, looking for traces of the
cocktails.

This could provide a lot of interesting data on the speed at which materials
are recycled, how liquid the upper layers of the crust are (are any of the
materials returned, or do they just sink towards the center?), what directions
the under-plate currents flow in, how much mixing is going on, et cetera et
cetera et cetera.

Hell, we _need_ to begin injecting nuclear waste into the sea bed.

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nlo
Trivia: A reversal of Larry's name is how Magic: the Gathering card
Nevinyrral's Disk was named -
[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiver...](http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159266)

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mcguire
Sounds like an excellent way to get rid of that pesky, difficult-to-trace
physical currency in favor of modern, lovely digital transactions.

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maaku
Also keeps too much wealth from accumulating in one place, lest it go
supercritical.

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waqas-
well, that escalated quickly...

