In the year 2333

[iamlost]

A 148 acre site in Dounreay, west of Thurso, on the north coast of Scotland, should be safe for public use again in the year 2333; the decommissioned reactor site remaining hazardous for the next 313 years.

Thinking positively, proactively, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says that they will be developing ‘credible’ use options over the next couple of years.

Not a problem then...

[lucy24]

Inquiring minds want to know: How, exactly, did they arrive at the figure of 313 years?

[not2easy]

That was the number of beans that would fit in the bottle?
That was the number of years that they calculated that anyone who might know of them and their calculation would be beyond caring?

[lucy24]

Wait, wait, I’ve figured it out: Real-estate speculators, applying current climate projections, concluded that the north coast of Scotland would become prime tropical-vacation property by 2333. Under the table, money changed hands.

[edited by: lucy24 at 5:24 pm (utc) on Aug 21, 2020]

[LifeinAsia]

But won't it be under water by then because of Global Warming?

[NickMNS]

the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority says that they will be developing ‘credible’ use options over the next couple of years.

I have an idea for a 'credible' use option, use it store nuclear waste from other not yet contaminated sites. In fact they could start using it today and not need to wait 313 years. After all, is anybody going to be comfortable using the site for anything else even after 313 years? Would you build your house there?

Now for something completely different.

A starting today idea, Glow in the dark whiskey!

I could see hipsters everywhere sipping drams of the stuff. In fact you could create an app for your smart phone camera that would allow you to film the whiskey as it is ingested (think x-rays). Those would go viral on the gram. Nobody, steal my idea, I'm going to start looking for investors for some seed capital.

I'll call it Down Ray.

I could also sell a premium non radio-active bottling. I'll store it in oak casks for 313 years and it will be ready to drink in 2333.

[RhinoFish]

It's the cesium137 and strontium90, half lives of 25-30 years, so when you have a big pile of it, it takes more than 10 half lives to decay away.
Technology will save us, we'll learn to totally encapsulate in the next 50 years.
In the next 100 years, we'll figure out how to alter the atoms to deactivate it.
What we should really worry about is how Keith Richards is still alive.

[phranque]

"alter(ing) the atoms to deactivate" the radioactive waste is still an atomic reaction which will likely require and/or generate large amounts of energy and possibly more radiation.

[ronin]

"By 2333, some of the lustre had faded from the pan-solar-system co-operation project and the rhetoric of various demagogues on the Earthring, Luna, Mars, Titan, Ceres and Phobos had gained considerable traction. Each hawkish Sphere President courted their domestic audiences, accusing various of their counterparts of presiding over sustained hacking campaigns and building backdoors into the infrastructure technologies they sought to aggressively export across the system. Phobos, particularly, was keen to end its union status with Mars, following the precedent set by Luna, one century before."

Plus ça change...