Nuclear Waste Storage

I think putting it into space is too risky and expensive. How about dropping it in a volcano? The waste is very heavy and would swiftly sink in the lava where it would melt and diffuse in the magma layer. You might be able to put it in a streamlined ceramic shell so it does not melt until it is very deep.

"...so far away that the pieces will never even come remotely close to Earth when you blow it up..."

When we blow up Earth?

Actually, I would just push it into the sun. And yes, we could load the space shuttle with it - those hardly ever blow up.

It'd be hard to keep track of the pieces if you detonated something in space. Better to just push it toward another large gravitational field so you can find/avoid it later.

Size of North America = 9,540,000 Sq Miles.

Size of American Football field = 0.002 Sq Miles.

Why is this a big deal?

Not to beat a dead horse, but do you guys get how BIG space is? Like Douglas Adams said, "you just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." Something the size of a football field is insanely tiny in the enormity we're talking about. Seems like if you throw this stuff way the heck out there, I mean really far, so far away that the pieces will never even come remotely close to Earth when you blow it up, there really wouldn't be a problem at all. Sure beats sticking it in the ground for millennia. Am I just crazy?