The Time Perspective

Abstract

The safe disposal of nuclear wastes requires that the predictions of the actions of mankind and nature must be made for periods of tens of thousands of years. This chapter illustrates a figure that represents the danger of nuclear waste disposal. The waste must be disposed of in such a manner in which any and all paths, by which the radionuclides could travel and eventually be consumed by living organisms, must be extremely long and contain many barriers; the quantities of radionuclides, which could travel to sources of drinking and irrigation water, must be extremely small or highly diluted. The disposal of nuclear wastes in mined rooms and tunnels in deep rock formations offers many advantages for achieving these goals as well as some disadvantages. The chapter presents the comparison of the danger from the nuclear waste to the danger from uranium ore by using the dilution method.