[green7ea]

From my understanding, solar wind can only push the payload further away from the sun and there is no noticeable drag in space or the earth wouldn't orbit for very long.

You are probably thinking that you can sail upwind on a sail boat but it isn't the same in space. The boat's keel [1] and general shape keep it going straight which is necessary to sail upwind. That doesn't work in space.

Another factor is that a sail works much like an airplane's wing and isn't really 'pushed' by the wind. This allows the force to be perpendicular to the sail in some cases. To my knowledge (take this part with a grain of salt), solar sails works by receiving momentum as the photons hit. This could only push it away from the sun.

http://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/images/physics_sa...

[btilly]

The force will be perpendicular to the surface light reflects from, not perpendicular to the light arriving at the surface. Therefore if the sail was mounted at a 45 degree angle to the Sun, there would be a force that reduces angular momentum and puts the object in a spiral towards the Sun.

[spiritplumber]

http://wiki.solarsails.info/index.php/Tacking_Solar_Sails You can tack a solar sail so that it gets closer to the sun, but solar sails need to be very light to work at all... and nuclear waste is heavy.