# Why don't we bury our radioactive waste in an ocean trench? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 30, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636 "2003-09-30T04:50:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/61 "2016-07-05T05:00:44Z")
Has no one seen the Ishiro Honda documentary on this subject? You’re going to doom us all!!! ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/62 "2016-07-05T05:38:38Z")
> [@Fred\_Moore](#): > > Deep Sea Trenches MUST be radioactive already. The reason is because there are NO mechanisms (as erroneously surmised on this forum) that can dislodge mud and slurry form such high pressure environments. > > 1. Gravity plus ocean currents necessarily mean that ALL natural radioactive species over eons of time have found their way to the LOWEST points in the oceans IE. Deep Ocean Trenches. Therefore they are already highly radioactive. The fact that they support lifeforms and are considered safe needs to be researched further. Certainly that research could pave the way for disposal of our relatively paltry human waste disposal needs in comparison to millennia of far greater natural radioactive waste inputs. > 2. Natural radioactivity entering the oceans is many times the amount that has been used by humans and is being disposed of continually. What we would add to the trenches is miniscule in comparison. If it could be dislodged, we would certainly be reading online articles pertaining to radioactivity in or from Deep Sea Trenches. There are NO such articles. I have searched extensively! I would have thought a Geiger counter would have been one of the first instruments used to study these trenches. **Fred** there is a difference between an equilibrium level of mildly radioactive materials dispersed over the ocean ecosystem and localized concentrations of highly radioactive and long lived isotopes clustered along subduction zones. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/63 "2016-07-05T05:47:07Z")
Sure, turn quietly slumbering Cthulhu into rudely awakened radioactive Cthulhu ! I’m sure it’ll turn out well for everyone involved. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/64 "2016-07-05T12:26:44Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > … Maybe into the Mariana Trench? Just long enough for free neutrons to decay! ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/65 "2016-07-08T15:55:39Z")
So does anybody know anything about the “waterfall of sand” that **ronbo** posted about 13 years ago? Does it actually exist? It sounds pretty cool. > [@chorpler](#): > > Plus it would be available to well-funded terrorists and/or world-domination-crazed evil geniuses with deep-sea submersibles. And as we have learned in the years between this post and now … it would also be available to James Cameron. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/66 "2016-07-08T16:40:44Z")
Best I could find was this reference on Wikipedia about [San Lucas Canyon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Lucas_Canyon) off of Baja. One of the references [http://members.iinet.net/~glrmc/RMC%201975%20Mass%20Transport%20-%20Earth%20Science%20Rev.%2011,%20145-177.PDF](http://members.iinet.net/~glrmc/RMC%201975%20Mass%20Transport%20-%20Earth%20Science%20Rev.%2011,%20145-177.PDF) states > [@](#): > > Free-falling particles m the sand gram-sizes were first reported m the subaqueous environment m 1959 by a Scripps Institute of Oceanography SCUBA party, who observed "sand falls where flowing sand spilled over abrupt drop-offs No mention of Alaska or a river of sand though. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/67 "2016-07-14T13:50:46Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > Best I could find was this reference on Wikipedia about [San Lucas Canyon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Lucas_Canyon) off of Baja. One of the references [http://members.iinet.net/~glrmc/RMC%201975%20Mass%20Transport%20-%20Earth%20Science%20Rev.%2011,%20145-177.PDF](http://members.iinet.net/~glrmc/RMC%201975%20Mass%20Transport%20-%20Earth%20Science%20Rev.%2011,%20145-177.PDF) states > No mention of Alaska or a river of sand though. Thanks **Grey**! Quite fascinating. Even if it doesn’t quite match what the OP described, I would assume it must be what he/she was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/68 "2016-07-14T15:00:24Z")
Turbidity currents are a kind of ‘river of sand’, although they consist of silt rather than sand. > **[Turbidity current](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbidity_current)** > > A turbidity current is most typically an underwater current of usually rapidly moving, sediment-laden water moving down a slope; although current research (2018) indicates that water-saturated sediment may be the primary actor in the process. Turbidity currents can also occur in other fluids besides water. > Researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute found that a layer of water-saturated sediment moved rapidly over the seafloor and mobilized the upper few meters of the preexist... A turbidity flow might usefully bury some nasty stuff for prolonged periods of time, assuming we can find a suitable candidate. But it is possible that at least some of the nuclear waste we are now throwing away could become an economic resource in the future, so throwing it into inaccessible regions might not be the best idea. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/69 "2016-07-14T15:06:29Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Has no one seen the Ishiro Honda documentary on this subject? You’re going to doom us all!!! Actually, according to the follow-up articles, it might actually be _beneficial_ to human life, and life on Earth in general. [Dancingly so!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrhe9KO8Z1Y) ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636/70 "2016-07-14T15:11:30Z")
For an actual plan, in Canada there is the deep geologic depository: > **[404: Page Not Found - OPG](https://www.opg.com/not-found/)** > > Oops. We've generated a 404 error. The page you requested can't be found. Sorry for the inconvenience, this error has been reported to our team and we’re working on a solution. Please return to OPG.com Seems a cheaper and better proposal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-bury-our-radioactive-waste-in-an-ocean-trench/204636.md?page=3)