Salt Domes

The solutions to nuclear waste involve salt domes and new technology of nuclear power. The best option for storage of nuclear waste is to store it in salt domes. Salt is the “ultimate geologic medium for retention of radioactive material” this allows for the entrapment of the radiation and heat emitted from nuclear waste (Funderburk). Salt domes are also geologically stable for 50 to 100 million years which assures prevention of degradation of the storage facilities (Funderburk). Salt domes are also very commonly found in places such as the southern United States and the Gulf of Mexico (Funderburk). One experiment on salt domes, “Project Salt-Vault”, showed how well salt handles radiation (Funderburk). The main objective of the experiment was …show more content…
There have also been numerous nuclear bomb detonations inside of the Tatum Salt Dome (Funderburk). Upon numerous examinations there has been no evidence of any radiation penetrating to the top of the surface or the soil around the salt dome (Funderburk). One storage facility has already implemented the use of salt domes. This facility is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (Morrison). Currently this facility holds 85,000 cubic meters of high level nuclear waste (Morrison). A majority of this waste is plutonium originating from nuclear weapons manufacturing and not from any commercial reactors. This site also utilizes the way salt will seep into voids and cracks sealing the waste away for good (Morrison). The next step of finding a solution is to find a suitable salt formation to store waste in. Yucca Mountain is one such place that would be suitable. Unfortunately this project was shut down by the Obama Administration after facing strong resistance from local citizens (Fyffe). Luckily there are numerous other suitable salt domes available. The biggest problem in implementing a final resting place for the waste is the public attitude about the