Nuclear waste poses a serious threat to public health if it’s not stored in a safe place. John Oliver explains why the United States desperately needs to build a metaphorical toilet for all that waste. Oliver likens our national nuclear waste disposal problem to building a really nice house with all of the amenities, except a toilet. That is really poor planning for the inevitable! The solution for the homeowner is simple, but it’s not so easy to deal with nuclear waste, especially when we have no workable plans. While we sit on our good intentions to plan something one day – storage, such as it is, deteriorates with unthinkable repercussions.
Even if you don’t live near Hanford, Washington “the most contaminated place in the western hemisphere,” where cancer frequently occurs within a wide radius, it’s quite possible that you live near another plant, or a location where nuclear waste has been dumped. This is typical way of dealing with nuclear waste: Sailors dumped barrels filled with the deadly goo into the ocean. When the barrels failed to sink, they shot them full of holes . Did I mention that this little situation took place just off of the Jersey Shore?