by noting that radioactivity migrated through the proposed Yucca Mountain permanent storage site in the US--allegedly dry and impermeable--in less than 40 years.
The good fortune of the Gabon site cannot be taken for granted. The Fates are kind.
The point here is the migration rate.
Once the cask breaks down--which takes some years--THEN the 40-yr number comes into play.
A reminder: his stuff is dangerous for tens of thousands to millions of years--longer than the entire span of civilized human activity.
I frankly do not believe these problems can be solved--they are beyond human scale.
The outlook for single-celled organisms is GOOD! The Fates are kind.
Secondly, stop just making up huge numbers. Reactor waste is dangerous for about 300-1000 years, depending on the reactor type and how much reprocessing is done. After that, the residue is less dangerous than the uranium ore it was made from. The world is full of uranium ore in no special repository, and civilization did not fall because of that.
You don't believe my numbers? Well, the half live of the dangerous components (Sr-90 and Cs-137) is about 30 years. You're invited to name the oh-so-dangerous isotopes with half lives of about 100.000 years. Note that even the transuranics, which any sane civilization would use as energy source instead of burying them, are already included in the above figure, see http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/cnf_sectionE.htm
1000 years are not beyond human timescale. The Egytian pyramids are six time older, and one could expect us to build better repositories today.
Face it: had the pharaohs disposed of reprocessing waste in the pyramids, we'd only be able to nitice it if we knew what to look for. The pyramids could have been a very good repository.
Oh--you expect that would be reprocesses out. Well, in the US it is not, and if you did, then you would have a messy reprocessing plant to deal with. You say it is clean but that is not reality: The history of these plants--and its no surprise to anyone familiar with how industry really operates--is that there are always leaks, mishaps and accidents.
The pyramids were breached in antiquity. The US did not yet even exist. So much for containment. The Fates are kind.
