Dumping nuclear waste into the sun?

Question

A bit of scientific whimsy here, since I know the cost would be prohibitive, but theoretically, would it be safe to throw a giant canister containing all of the world's radioactive waste from nuclear power plants into the sun? Or would it cause a flare that could incinerate our planet? What about the safety of throwing nuclear waste into a black hole?

Support for your theories would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

For the ultimate cleanup of the planet Earth, your suggestion is not as irrational as it may first seem.

From a practical stand point, the sun would not be harmed in any way. Its mass is so huge (about 330,000 times that of the Earth) and temperature is so hot (millions of degrees by any scale) that humans do not have the ability to alter it no matter what we do.

Getting anything there is the problem. Alas, we have no Superman to toss it. The energy required would exceed the energy produced in making the waste.

The sun, itself, is the largest "controlled" thermonuclear reaction in the solar system. Resources might be better spent in harnessing its energy than in our puny attempts to emulate it. At least then we would have no additional nuclear waste to remove.

The biggest problem with your "black hole solution" is the distance to the nearest black hole. By definition, once an item reaches the event horizon of a black hole, it no longer exists in this physical universe. What goes into a black hole never comes out.

Back to the solar incineration solution. If humanity ever wanted to clean the Earth of all of the toxic and radioactive waste accumulating, then the energy must be available to "shoot" this stuff into the sun. Perhaps some sort of electromagnetic cannon. This would be safer than any chemical rocket.

Answer 2

That would not cause any damage to the Sun at all. However, there is always a chance of a launch failure dumping all that waste right back on Earth. And due to a characteristic of orbital mechanics that most people do not understand, it actually takes more rocket power to reach the Sun that it does to escape the solar system completely. In other words, it would be easier to dump the stuff on the Moon, or Jupiter, or Pluto, or even send it to another star. Of course, before it competed the million year voyage to that other star, the stuff would have decayed to stable forms and no longer be radioactive. Since the nearest black hole that we know of is thousands of times more distant than the nearest regular stars, the stuff would have lost all radioactivity before completing the billion year trip to that black hole.

Answer 3

It isn't whimsy but something frequently considered in the past, that and dumping on the moon.

The problem is getting it up there. We have launches that are protested and challenged today when we send a probe up with a few ounces of plutonium to provide energy and warmth to deep space probes. People are afraid that if the launch fails and that payload plumets back to earth it will break open and spill. That would be a spill that could, potentially, be disasterous in numerous ways.

God could dump the whole earth into the sun and it be a minor hiccup, that star is so massive and our world so comparatively tiny. Again, the idea is perfect--the getting the stuff off our planet is the part that scares people silly.

Answer 4

It would be completely safe - the Sun wouldn't notice a thing. Comets crash into the Sun all the time, with no effect. Just remember how gigantic the Sun is - the entire Earth could fit into a small sunspot!

Same goes for throwing waste into a black hole, assuming, of course, that you don't miss and it actually crosses the event horizon.

Just some random useless information for you - if you work out the calculations, it actually takes less energy to send something out of the solar system than it does to send something into the Sun from Earth.

Answer 5

Throwing the waste into the sun can cause a reaction but i don't know what kind. Your best chance is to put it on the moon, venus, or mars. since they are inhabitable due to thier atmosphere and temperature.