Why not send our waste to the sun, it is already nuclear, it would surely burn up anything that enters its personal space.

The first time a nuclear waste rocket exploded on the launching pad, or even worse in the atmosphere, large areas, if not the whole world could become un-inhabitable.

A rocket has not exploded on the launch pad since the 1950’s. And while it’s true the space shuttle was blown to pieces by its fuel tank shortly after takeoff – potentially contaminating the part of the ocean closest to the cape – we wouldn’t send nuclear waste up in the shuttle anyway.

Sending nuclear waste up into space and then on to the sun would be the ultimate in recycling since that is where it all came from to begin with. Not our sun of course, but from solar bodies. The nova that created our current heavy atoms from which we make our nuclear waste is long gone.

There is so much nuclear material streaming out from the sun, I’m not sure it would work anyway – but it’s a nice thought.

Nuclear waste is got a lot of hype around it. Not that we shouldn’t be careful to the max in handling it, but of all the poisons, diseases, a deadly material we can come in contact with, radioactive material is the easies to detect. It can be detected from several feet away from actual contact. For all other poisons, we must actually sample it to determine if it is even there. Even if radioactive contamination is ingested, it can be detected as to its precise location within our bodies, which is more than you can say about DDT, PCP, or bird flu.

Be hip on hype. Radioactive contamination is certainly bad, but there are a lot of poisons out there that will kill or harm you and you come in contact with them constantly. If you live near any body of water, farm runoff is a good example. Now, who is against farmers?

scout29c:

A rocket has not exploded on the launch pad since the 1950’s. And while it’s true the space shuttle was blown to pieces by its fuel tank shortly after takeoff – potentially contaminating the part of the ocean closest to the cape – we wouldn’t send nuclear waste up in the shuttle anyway.

That's not true regarding launch pad explosions. Just last year, a Zenit 3SL rocket exploded on its launch pad: <link>

And a few years ago, a Delta II rocket exploded 13 seconds after liftoff (<link>). In that case, authorities warned people to stay indoors with the windows closed as a precaution against the non-toxic smoke. Can you imagine if this had instead been nuclear waste?

But aside from the obvious and real dangers of rocket failure, the main reason we don't send waste up in rockets is the cost. It costs tens of thousands of dollars per pound of payload to launch a rocket into space. This would make launching hazardous waste in rockets overwhelmingly cost prohibitive.