Could sending nuclear waste to space be a sustainable long-term solution?

Question

Managing nuclear waste on Earth, such as through deep geological repositories, is currently the most common approach. However, an alternative idea I’m curious about is the possibility of sending nuclear waste into space and setting it in free motion away from Earth to dispose of it permanently.

The concept seems reasonable since launching the waste into space could remove it entirely from Earth's environment, eliminating long-term storage risks.

I’d like to understand:

1. What are the technical, economic, and environmental considerations of such a solution?
2. Are there scenarios where this could become a viable option in the future, given advancements in space technology and costs?

I’m interested in understanding whether space disposal has been seriously evaluated and what challenges or opportunities it presents in the context of sustainability.

Answer 1

There are several problems:

• what do you send? Now for intermediate storage we put in concrete blocks, so very heavy (so not easy to be lifted). If you send "pure", you get much radioactivity on rocket (and transportation). Also consider rockets are very light, so they will not mask radioactivity, so the avionics may be damaged by it. Or with more shielding, but then too heavy

• "space" is generic. We can send into free space very light objects. Else e.g. in Each orbit or also in sun orbit: it will come back. Other countries may not be pleased.

• risk: rocket fails (consider also second and third stage, deployment of "payload", communication, etc. Do you think people near space-ports will be happy? The launching country is responsible for every damage in other countries get, and so you expect huge claims for any failure. Nobody would take the risk.

• and in any case: costs. Do you think government have so much money? Also with improved technology

And it seems just hiding the problem or a "not in my backyard", so not a real solution.

I think there are numerous studies on that, especially in last century (where people were more positive on fast rocket improvements), but was never proved feasible.

Answer 2

This question has been explored by the popular YouTube channel Kurzgesagt:

Why Don't We Shoot Nuclear Waste Into Space?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2Z-WC9rao

If you prefer reading over watching a YouTube video, they also linked their sources:

https://sites.google.com/view/sources-nuclearwaste/