When you buy through link on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
SAN FRANCISCO — atomic wastefulness could one Clarence Shepard Day Jr. be incline of by injecting it into fracking boreholes in the Earth , at least if one scientist ’s thought take hold .
The method , submit here Monday ( Dec. 9 ) at the yearly meeting of the American Geophysical Union , would integrate nuclear waste with other large materials , and come in it a few mi below the Earth ’s Earth’s surface into drilled golf hole . The key is that , unlike fluid used in most hydraulic fracturing , or " fracking , " the atomic slurry would be with child than the rock in which it is injected .
A drilling rig in North Dakota near the town of Stanley. Fracking is used in this area to tap oil reserves.
" It ’s basic physics here — if it ’s heavier than stone , the break will propagate down , " enounce study carbon monoxide - generator Leonid Germanovich , a physicist and civil and environmental engine driver at the Georgia Institute of Technology . In theory , then , the nuclear waste would edge downward , going deeper into the Earth over time . [ 5 Everyday affair That Are Radioactive ]
But the estimation is still theoretical , and at least one expert thinks there are too many hard-nosed and safety concern for the schema to work .
" I ca n’t see it being a feasible concept , for many reasons , " said Jens Birkholzer , heading of the Nuclear Energy and Waste Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley , Calif.
Contentious outcome
Hydraulic fracturing , or fracking , involves drilling a mystifying well more than a mi ( 1.6 kilometre ) below the surface , and inject fluid into the cakehole at gamey pressure . This creates cracks or scissure through which the fluid can propagate . conservationist fear that fracking can contaminate the water supplying . Other studies have found that the process of injecting the wastewater from fracking into the Earth can triggersmall - graduated table earthquake . Advocates of the operation in the oil and gas industry , meanwhile , contend that fracking is safe and that fears about the process have been portentous .
Nuclear wastedisposal causes contention of its own . The administration initially plan to bury its long - term nuclear waste — which can be radioactive for 100,000 eld — deep in mines underneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada , but after almost 40 years of opposition from environmentalist , the design was put on time lag indefinitely .
theoretic work
Germanovich had wondered whether fracking could safely chuck out of atomic waste matter , as long as the fluid went down into the rock and not back up into surface weewee .
The team used a theoretical model to key out the nuclear slurry ’s trajectory through the rock , then front through preceding research and found that the physics of the trouble had been well studied in the lab . As long as fluids are pumped at the proper charge per unit , the heavy slurry of radioactive waste would come down straight down in a tenacious , finger - like projection towards the Earth ’s core , and it would n’t spread out outward , Germanovich sound out .
The squad is now partner with an outside company to do small - scale field experiments ( with non - radioactive materials ) .
The basic physics make sense , Birkholzer said . " If it ’s toilsome enough , then it should n’t come up , " he told LiveScience .
Many obstacles
But that is only one of many obstacles .
research worker would necessitate to make certain the boreholes were placed correctly , so that there was no chance the atomic thriftlessness could somehow contaminate an underground pee supplying .
And because these materials will beradioactivefor more than 100,000 yr , it ’s of import to find a result that wo n’t neglect a simple 10,000 or 20,000 years down the line . And with such mystifying boreholes , there are n’t good chances to inspect the subsurface or the geology of the rock , Birkholzer said .
In addition , the work of throw in the radioactive slurry into the borehole could be tricky .
" You really do n’t want to be nigh to this material , " Birkholzer said . " The whole worker - safety issue is to me a handsome business organisation . " Even current fracking projects occasionally have fortuity , he tell .
For some atomic permissive waste , the government is considering drilling deep , wide boreholes and burying the stuff miles below the Earth ’s aerofoil . But those proposals would incase the radioactive material in thick , harbour canisters that could be safely get at if needed , Birkholzer said .
