X-Message-Number: 20234
From: 
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 07:31:21 EDT
Subject: Re: CryoNet #20208 Nuclear energy

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> Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 09:30:43 -0400
> From: Thomas Donaldson


> There seems to be a unified view that the pollution of nuclear
> power will stay with us for a long time. That is, thousands of
> years. At least 2 ways to deal with that problem in far less
> than 1000 years can be suggested:
> 
> 1. Throw the waste into the Sun.
>     

I fear that is not workable:
First that would require a veryyyyy... secure launch vehicle.
Assume this is possible, going to the Sun from Earth orbit implies that we 
cancel the Earth orbit speed, that is something as 32 km/s. This must be 
added to the 11 km/s to quit Earth's gravitational domain. No rocket has done 
that and no one will does for a long time. Jupiter would be more workable, 
but everybody talk about the Sun...


> 2. Process it into useful elements
>    The problem that many get hung up on here is that such 
>      processing can also produce material useful for weapons.
>    However anything useful for weapons can also be used for
>      quite peaceful applications. 

The real problem is not here, it is in the Avogadro number: If the mass of a 
typical radio-active atom is 60 atomic mass, then there are near 10 000 
billions of billions atoms in one g. Assume you are losing one part per 
million of that material in the processing, that is 10 millions billions 
atoms. If the half-life is 1000 year (31 billions seconds) There will be 150 
000 disintegrations per second in the environment. 

There is the problem: Even a microscopic lost of matter in the reprocessing 
produces an enormous contamination. And I have assumed a recovery percentage 
of 99.9999 per cent!

That is why reprocessing is not workable if you are responsible ( The biggest 
reprocessing plant is in France, a country well known for its 
irresponsability!).

Yvan Bozzonetti.

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