From the US Department of Energy:
Here’s 3 Reasons Why:
Problem 1 – It’s very expensive. It would cost around $44 billion per year to launch all of the world’s spent nuclear fuel into space. We simply don’t have that many rockets and it would require entirely new space industries to be established just for that purpose.
Problem 2 – Space is Complicated. Shooting thousands of containers of spent nuclear fuel into low Earth orbit could add to the millions of fast-moving and dangerous debris orbiting the Earth. Any impact with the debris could damage or destroy a working satellite, creating even more debris.
Problem 3 – Rockets are not Perfect. 11 out of 146 rocket launches in 2021 were failures. This means that rockets carrying nuclear waste could explode during the launch or break apart and crash back down to Earth. U.S. spent nuclear fuel is safely and securely stored at more than 70 reactor sites across the country.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/43o9HgO