Nuclear Waste in Our Oceans
...s causes a problem because the waste could pollute the surrounding ground water, which would eventually lead to our rivers, streams, lakes, and water supplies. The other idea that hasn’t been researched extensively is the idea of burring the waste in our ocean. Some of the attractive uniqueness of the possibility of burring the waste in the ocean is the number of characteristics that the mid-ocean has. For instance, the mid-ocean zones have remained geologically still for 50-100 million years. Another attractive quality is that the clay has a low permeability to water, and it has a tendency to absorb materials that flows around the mixtures. It seems to be that the muddy sediments have trapped the radioactive materials from the reactor that were carelessly dumped into our oceans. This fact alone, that the muddy sediments trap the material and hold on to it, makes the idea that burying the nuclear waste seems more reasonable. The third liked quality that the mid-ocean zones has is that the life that is found in these areas, that could transport the waste to the surface of the ocean, can only be found only in the top meter of the seabed material. Finally the sea bottom currents in these areas are minimal and not likely to uncover sub seabed materials, such as the buried containers of nuclear waste. The process of burying the waste would start would be drilling the holes for the nuclear materials. The drill would be lowered to the seabed with a re-entry cone attached to it. After the re-entry cone was assembled and placed the drill would continue to drill 500-1,000 feet down. Creating a passage for the nuclear waste to be buried. After that process was done they would alternate nuclear waste canisters and mud in the containment wells. The top container would be located about 10-30 meters below the seabed surface. Then the well would be sealed and the cone would be left in place should the occasion call for a little nuclear waste to be needed. Scientists believe that the drill string would corrode and dissolve after only 1,000 years of being submerged. The actual nuclear waste would most likely be contained in a glass or ceramic container, which would last much longer then the metal drill. These containers have been tested and over a period of 24,000 years the nuclear waste only migrated approximately one meter from the container. However, the life of plutonium and other transuranic elements is twice the life of the ceramic or glass containers. Russia and the Soviet Union have confessed that they have dumped nuclear waste into the ocean before. Also, some submarines that are running by nuclear reactors have sunk into the great ocean blue, but the scientists have noticed that there has been not significant change in the “health” of...