There’s a dump near my workplace that has old radioactive waste buried deep. It is also on fire (underground) and has been slowly burning for like the last decade.
Depends on what you mean by flammable. Yes it exists, but it’s not explosive like in the comic, and it definitely wouldn’t set off a nuclear explosion.
That being said, not all nuclear waste comes from nuclear power plants. For example medical isotope production facilities and nuclear medicine departments at hospitals have nuclear waste as well. Most gets stored on-site until the radioactive elements decay below a certain threshold and it can go with the regular waste, but some waste containing longer-lived radionuclides gets transferred to facilities where it can be stored for several years.
Nuclear research facilities will likely have some flammable waste as well.
It’s just a comic but made me think. Is there nuclear waste that’s flammable?
Yes! Uranium and plutonium metals are not only flammable, but are also pyrophoric, meaning the can self ignite in air.
I don’t think so. And if there is, the cask it’s transported in would not be damaged by a floating burning head hitting it.
I don’t know. This head looks pretty giant. About as big as the trailer of the truck.
But even if it was damaged and there were some flammable fluids inside it still wouldn’t set off a nuclear explosion.
There’s a dump near my workplace that has old radioactive waste buried deep. It is also on fire (underground) and has been slowly burning for like the last decade.
That sounds interesting. Do you mind sharing where the dump is?
North west St Louis County
Depends on what you mean by flammable. Yes it exists, but it’s not explosive like in the comic, and it definitely wouldn’t set off a nuclear explosion.
That being said, not all nuclear waste comes from nuclear power plants. For example medical isotope production facilities and nuclear medicine departments at hospitals have nuclear waste as well. Most gets stored on-site until the radioactive elements decay below a certain threshold and it can go with the regular waste, but some waste containing longer-lived radionuclides gets transferred to facilities where it can be stored for several years.
Nuclear research facilities will likely have some flammable waste as well.