X-Message-Number: 20234 From: Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 07:31:21 EDT Subject: Re: CryoNet #20208 Nuclear energy --part1_3a.2d9d6fad.2acae189_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > 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. --part1_3a.2d9d6fad.2acae189_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20234