Name: 為什麼我們不把核廢料射入太空？ (Why Don't We Shoot Nuclear Waste Into Space?)
Uploaded: 2022-11-10T16:46:14.000Z
Duration: 10 min 55 s

The limited edition 12023 Kurzgesagt calendar is  here! Every purchase enables us to make videos  

限量版的12023年Kurzgesagt日曆來了!每一次購買都使我們能夠製作視頻

free for everyone. So get one for yourself or a  loved one and be a sponsor of the following video.  

免費提供給大家。是以，為自己或所愛的人得到一個，併成為以下視頻的贊助商。  

Eternal gratitude from us and  all the birbs around the world

我們和世界上所有的鳥人永遠感謝你。

Here in the Kurzgesagt labs we test very important  ideas to see what happens when you blow things up  

在Kurzgesagt實驗室裡，我們測試了非常重要的想法，看看當你把東西炸燬時會發生什麼。

or play with black holes. Many of you suggested  that we look into an idea that sounds reasonable:  

或玩弄黑洞。你們中的許多人建議我們研究一個聽起來很合理的想法。

Shooting nuclear waste into space. It is  one of those concepts that seems like an  

將核廢料射入太空。這是其中一個看起來像 "不可能 "的概念。

easy fix for one of the main problems with  nuclear energy. But it turns out this idea  

對核能的主要問題之一的簡單解決。但事實證明，這個想法

is not just bad but horribly bad and it  gets worse the longer you think about it.

不僅僅是糟糕，而且是可怕的糟糕，你想得越久就越糟糕。

Nuclear waste is a fuzzy term  and comes in categories which  

核廢料是一個模糊的術語，分為以下幾類

vary from country to country. But in  general there are three broad levels:

各個國家的情況不同。但一般來說，有三個大的層次。

90% is low level nuclear waste – tools, gloves or  

90%是低水平核廢料--工具、手套或

trash used at a nuclear facility  that could be weakly contaminated,  

在核設施中使用的、可能受到弱汙染的垃圾。

with some short lived radioactivity. This  stuff is generally safe for normal disposal.

具有一些短時的放射性。這種東西一般來說對正常處置是安全的。

7% is intermediate level nuclear waste – mostly  materials that have been in close proximity to a  

7%是中級核廢料--主要是那些曾接近於核電站的材料。

reactor core long enough to become dangerously  radioactive. With proper handling it is either  

足夠長的時間使其成為危險的放射性物質。只要處理得當，它要麼是

safely buried or melted down and mixed into  glass or concrete and stored deep underground.

安全地掩埋或融化並混合成玻璃或混凝土，儲存在地下深處。

So 97% of nuclear waste is similar to toxic  byproducts from other industries. Not great,  

所以97%的核廢料與其他行業的有毒副產品類似。不是很好。

not terrible – we can handle it. The  remaining 3% is where our problems begin.

並不可怕--我們可以處理它。剩下的3%是我們問題的開始。

High level nuclear waste is very concentrated  spent fuel taken out of a reactor core. Formerly  

高水平核廢料是指從反應堆核心取出的非常集中的乏燃料。以前是

uranium, it is now made of various dangerous and  often highly radioactive elements. As a bonus it  

鈾，現在是由各種危險的、往往是高度放射性的元素組成。作為一種獎勵，它

is also incredibly hot and not easy to handle at  all. This is what we want to shoot into space.

也是令人難以置信的熱，根本不容易處理。這就是我們想要射入太空的東西。

All in all, around 440 active nuclear reactors  create about 11,000 tonnes of high level nuclear  

總的來說，大約440個現役核反應堆創造了大約11,000噸的高濃度核物質。

waste each year. Since 1954, we have accumulated  400,000 tonnes of dangerous radioactive waste.  

每年的廢物。自1954年以來，我們已經積累了40萬噸的危險放射性廢物。  

Most countries are dealing with it by not dealing  with it and kicking the can towards the future.

大多數國家都是通過不處理它和把罐子踢向未來來處理它。

Great! So let’s launch it into space! According  to scientists space is big and nobody lives there,  

很好!是以，讓我們把它發射到太空中去吧!根據科學家的說法，太空很大，沒有人住在那裡。

so it seems perfect for yeeting away this  mess. There are a few tiny problems though.

所以它似乎很適合用來解決這個混亂的問題。不過有幾個小問題。

Even though spaceflight is getting  more affordable, it’s still extremely  

儘管太空飛行的價格越來越低，但它仍然是非常重要的。

expensive. Just to get something into low earth  orbit costs on average about $4,000 per kilogram.  

昂貴。僅僅把東西送入低地球軌道，平均每公斤就要花費4000美元。  

Putting that into perspective, it costs about  $1600 to mine, separate, and fabricate one  

從這個角度來看，開採、分離和製造一個的成本約為1600美元。

kilogram of nuclear fuel, so launching waste into  space has suddenly made nuclear fuel for reactors  

千克的核燃料，所以向太空發射廢物突然使反應堆的核燃料

way more expensive and greatly increased  the cost of the electricity they produce.

更加昂貴的方式，大大增加了他們生產的電力的成本。

To launch one reactor’s worth of nuclear waste  would cost at least $100 million per year.  

要發射一個反應堆的核廢料，每年至少要花費1億美元。  

To deal with all the 440 operational nuclear  power plants’ high level nuclear waste, would cost  

要處理所有440個運行中的核電站的高位核廢料，將花費

some $44 billion per year for space launch before  packaging, transport and security costs are added.

在加上包裝、運輸和安全費用之前，每年用於太空發射的費用約為440億美元。

Ok let us pretend we don’t care. Currently  we could not shoot all the nuclear waste  

好吧，讓我們假裝我們不關心。目前，我們無法拍攝所有的核廢料

into space even if we wanted to.  There just aren’t enough rockets.  

即使我們想進入太空。  只是沒有足夠的火箭。  

In 2021, we saw a record 135 launches into space.  If we repurposed each of those rockets and filled  

2021年，我們看到創紀錄的135次發射進入太空。  如果我們重新利用這些火箭，並將其填入

them all with nuclear waste, the total amount  that could be lifted into a Low Earth Orbit,  

他們都有核廢料，可以被提升到低地球軌道的總量。

which is the closest orbit above the  atmosphere, is nearly 800 tonnes.

這是在大氣層上方最接近的軌道，接近800噸。

We’d need at least 14 times more rockets  to handle just today’s nuclear waste,  

我們需要至少14倍的火箭來處理今天的核廢料。

let alone get rid of the hundreds of thousands  of tonnes in temporary storage. We would need  

更不用說擺脫臨時儲存的幾十萬噸了。我們將需要

to create entire new space industries  to keep up with the demand for giant,  

以創造整個新的空間產業，以跟上對巨人的需求。

toxic space trash trucks.   And it gets worse!

有毒的太空垃圾車。   而且情況越來越糟!

We only made the calculation for low earth orbit,  where we send most of our rockets and satellites.  

我們只對低地球軌道進行了計算，我們的大部分火箭和衛星都是在那裡發射的。  

Littering the space around earth with thousands of  casks of spent nuclear fuel would be a nightmare  

用數以千計的廢舊核燃料桶填滿地球周圍的空間將是一場噩夢。

for space junk management and satellite collision  avoidance. Worse still, at this altitude there  

用於空間垃圾管理和避免衛星碰撞。更糟糕的是，在這個高度上有

still is a little bit of atmosphere causing  a tiny bit of drag, so we might have nuclear  

還是有一點大氣層造成了一點點的阻力，所以我們可能會有核電

waste raining down from space within just a few  years. Experts would call this a huge problem.

廢物在短短几年內從太空中傾瀉而下。專家會稱這是一個巨大的問題。

Clearly, we have to launch our waste farther.  If we wanted to send it to, perhaps, the moon,  

很明顯，我們必須把我們的廢物發射得更遠。  如果我們想把它送到，也許，月球上。

we either need way more rockets or we need to  build much bigger ones. Making it even more  

我們要麼需要更多的火箭，要麼我們需要建造更大的火箭。讓它變得更加

expensive. A single Saturn V, the rocket used  by the Apollo program, which cost about $1.5  

昂貴。一枚土星五號，即阿波羅計劃使用的火箭，成本約為1.5美元。

billion adjusted for inflation per launch, could  get about 43.5 tonnes from the earth to the moon.  

每次發射按通貨膨脹率調整後的10億美元，可以將大約43.5噸的貨物從地球運到月球。  

So we would need about 260 Saturn V rocket  launches every year. And of course, using the  

是以，我們每年將需要大約260次土星五號火箭的發射。當然，使用

moon as target practice for nuclear-waste  tipped rockets kind of makes a huge mess.

月亮作為核廢料傾瀉火箭的目標練習，會造成巨大的混亂。

So maybe don’t aim for anything – space  is empty, do we really need a target?  

所以也許不要以任何東西為目標--空間是空的，我們真的需要一個目標嗎？  

Shooting waste in any random direction is,  you guessed it, also a bad idea. Orbits are  

向任何隨機方向射擊廢物，你猜對了，也是一個壞主意。軌道是

loops which means they have a tendency to come  back to where they started. Put enough in the  

循環，這意味著它們有回到它們開始的地方的趨勢。將足夠的

sky in random directions, and you'll get one back  eventually. So we would want to launch our nuclear  

天空中的隨機方向，你最終會得到一個回報。是以，我們會想要發射我們的核

waste deep into space, which means we need EVEN  bigger rockets that would be even more expensive.

廢物進入太空深處，這意味著我們需要更大的火箭，這將是更昂貴的。

Not that we would be completely safe then. Earth  might run into these interplanetary caskets at  

不是說那時我們會完全安全。地球可能會在以下地點碰到這些行星間的棺材

some time in the far future and experience a  pretty meteor shower made from radioactive dust.

在遙遠的未來的某個時候，經歷一場由放射性塵埃組成的漂亮流星雨。

Ok. But how about we shoot it into the sun?!

好的。但我們把它射向太陽怎麼樣？

Ironically, the sun is pretty hard to hit.  

諷刺的是，太陽是相當難打的。  

While the sun has very strong gravity, everything  on earth is moving with respect to the sun,  

雖然太陽有很強的引力，但地球上的一切都在相對於太陽運動。

including the rockets that we launch,  meaning a rocket would have to ‘cancel  

包括我們發射的火箭，這意味著火箭將不得不 "取消

out’ all the orbital motion it has around  the sun so it can stop orbiting and fall in.

出'它圍繞太陽的所有軌道運動，這樣它就可以停止運行並落入。

Because of this it is actually easier to  launch a rocket entirely out of the solar  

正因為如此，實際上，完全從太陽系中發射火箭更容易。

system than it is to launch it into  the sun. But to do either of these  

比起把它發射到太陽上，我們更應該把它放在系統中。但要做到這兩點中的任何一點

things we need even bigger rockets,  probably the biggest we’ve ever built.

事，我們需要更大的火箭，可能是我們有史以來最大的火箭。

問題是：情況仍然會變得更糟。

問題3：火箭隊走的是Brrrrrrrrrr。

Rocket engineering has taken  huge steps since the Apollo era.  

自阿波羅時代以來，火箭工程已經邁出了巨大的步伐。  

We have made them relatively safe. We’ve  mostly replaced the toxic explosive cancer  

我們已經使它們變得相對安全。我們已經大部分取代了有毒的爆炸性癌症

fuels of the past decades with much saner  mixes of liquid oxygen and hydrogen or  

在過去的幾十年裡，我們一直在使用更健康的液氧和氫氣混合燃料，或使用更健康的液氧和氫氣混合燃料。

kerosene. The newest designs even land  themselves so that they can be reused.

煤油。最新的設計甚至可以自己降落，以便可以重複使用。

And yet, Out of the 146 launches in 2021, there  were 11 failures. Which means that a sizable  

然而，在2021年的146次發射中，有11次是失敗的。這意味著，一個相當大的

number of our rockets carrying high level  radioactive waste would be exploding on the  

我們的一些運載高濃度放射性廢物的火箭將被爆炸。

launch pad or in the worst case: disassembling at  high altitude or crashing from hypersonic speeds.  

在最壞的情況下：在高空拆卸或從高超音速墜落。  

Each failure would be at least equivalent  to a mini-Chernobyl – but instead of being  

每一次故障都至少相當於一次小型切爾諾貝利事故--但不是被

contained under a slab of concrete,  spread throughout the atmosphere. 

包含在一塊混凝土板下，擴散到整個大氣層。

Radioactive particles could make their way  to far away places by riding on the winds.  

放射性粒子可以通過乘風而行，到達遙遠的地方。  

Most would fall in the ocean but some would  land on the inhabited parts of the world.  

大多數會落入海洋，但有些會落在世界有人居住的地方。  

They could cover farmlands and get concentrated  into our food, or enter our water supply. Which  

它們可能覆蓋農田並集中到我們的食物中，或進入我們的供水系統。其中

is, well, bad. Imagine regular large scale nuclear  disasters happening. People would not be happy.

是，嗯，不好。想象一下，定期發生大規模的核災難。人們會不高興的。

Nuclear waste is scary. But the fear  of it and horrible ideas like shooting  

核廢料是可怕的。但對它的恐懼和可怕的想法，如射擊

it into space reveals how bad we are at  understanding risk. Because the largest  

它進入太空揭示了我們在理解風險方面是多麼糟糕。因為最大的

amounts of radioactive elements like uranium  and radon are actually released by coal. Burning  

煤炭實際上釋放了大量的放射性元素，如鈾和氡。燃燒

millions of tonnes of coal each year leaves  ash as a waste product, that includes about  

每年有數百萬噸的煤炭留下灰燼作為廢品，其中包括約1,000噸的煤。

36,000 tonnes of radioactive materials. Less  radioactive than high level nuclear waste,  

36,000噸的放射性物質。比高位核廢料的放射性要低。

but there is also a lot more of it  and it is handled way less carefully.

但也有很多這樣的情況，而且處理起來也不那麼謹慎。

Some of this ash is caught by filters, but most  is simply pushed back into leaky mines, shoved  

其中一些灰燼被過濾器捕獲，但大多數灰燼只是被推回漏水的礦井中，並被推到了一個新的地方。

into piles exposed to the wind or poured into  ponds that regularly spill into rivers and lakes.  

成堆暴露在風中或倒入經常溢出到河流和湖泊的池塘。  

Living within 1.6 km of an ash pile  increases your cancer risk up to  

生活在灰堆1.6公里範圍內，你的癌症風險會增加到

2000 times over the acceptable limit. And this is  on top of other toxic chemicals like heavy metals,  

超過可接受限度的2000倍。而這是在重金屬等其他有毒化學品之外的。