Submitted by rosTopicEchoChamber t3_zxuwtv in space
HeebieMcJeeberson t1_j2ftpvm wrote
Reply to comment by ArceusTheLegendary50 in What if we kept pursuing nuclear spacecraft propulsion? by rosTopicEchoChamber
The Kurzgesagt video is well produced but surprisingly misleading. The drawbacks it brings up are all based on launching all of our nuclear waste into space, using present-day rockets with today's reliability levels, dedicated entirely to this one purpose, and each carrying the largest possible payload of waste. Most puzzlingly, it dismisses hitting the sun as difficult - as if it's any harder than hitting the moon, Mars, an asteroid, or any other space object we've been hitting consistently for decades. "What goes around comes around" is literally a terrible oversimplification that ignores reality.
The impracticalities the video discusses simply aren't relevant to adding a modest amount of waste to rocket exhaust as I described. But yes I agree that the strawman concept of launching nuclear waste into space on the scale described in the video would be a terrible idea.
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