At one time it was thought that the deep-ocean trenches at subduction zones woul
ID: 517 • Letter: A
Question
At one time it was thought that the deep-ocean trenches at subduction zones would be a good place for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Why is this not a good idea? Explain what can happen at a subduction zone and what might occur if the waste were buried there. (Hint: see oceanic-continental convergence.)200-300 word response
At one time it was thought that the deep-ocean trenches at subduction zones would be a good place for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Why is this not a good idea? Explain what can happen at a subduction zone and what might occur if the waste were buried there. (Hint: see oceanic-continental convergence.)
200-300 word response
At one time it was thought that the deep-ocean trenches at subduction zones would be a good place for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Why is this not a good idea? Explain what can happen at a subduction zone and what might occur if the waste were buried there. (Hint: see oceanic-continental convergence.)
200-300 word response
Explanation / Answer
At one time it was thought that the deep-ocean trenches at subduction zones would be a good place for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Why is this not a good idea? Explain what can happen at a subduction zone and what might occur if the waste were buried there. (Hint: see oceanic-continental convergence.)
This is a perennial suggestion: let's put our most pernicious wastes into the deepest sea, where they will be drawn down into the Earth's mantle well away from children and other living things. Usually people are thinking of high-level nuclear waste, which is considered dangerous for thousands of years. (That's why the design for the proposed waste facility at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, is so incredibly stringent.)
deep-sea trenches are where one plate dives beneath another (the process of subduction) to be swallowed up by the Earth's hot mantle. The descending plates go down hundreds of kilometers, where they are not the least bit of a threat. It isn't completely clear whether they disappear by being thoroughly mixed with mantle rocks
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