Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!caip!andromeda!argus!ken From: ken@argus.UUCP (Kenneth Ng) Newsgroups: net.sci Subject: Re: About the life of nuclear wastes Message-ID: <441@argus.UUCP> Date: Sat, 9-Aug-86 11:05:17 EDT Article-I.D.: argus.441 Posted: Sat Aug 9 11:05:17 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 11-Aug-86 04:04:01 EDT References: <1970@brl-smoke.ARPA> <320@rtech.UUCP> <2064@brl-smoke.ARPA> <859@tekigm2.UUCP> Organization: NJ Inst of Tech., Newark NJ Lines: 52 In article <859@tekigm2.UUCP>, timothym@tekigm2.UUCP (Timothy D Margeson) writes: > There has been some discussion about nuclear waste and the side effects: > > One of the pro arguments states that we can safely dispose of the effluent > and keep the site safe over the many hundreds to thousands of years, thus > preventing our grandchildren from accidentally digging into the waste dump. Here we go again, anyone here remember the discussion in net.politics? I do not have the time to debate that arguement again here, but I wish to provide some reading material for those interested. First, we don't need to keep radioactive waste isolated for thousands, or millions of years. In 300 years the total radiological hazard is less than the ore it came from. In other words, after 300 years, we will be on a net basis cleaning up the world. For those interested, please read "High-Level Radioactive Waste from Light Water Reactors", by Bernard L. Cohen, Reviews of Modern Physics, January 1977, pages 1 to 20. Appendix C shows calculations which indicate that the time to dissolve the salt bed in which nuclear waste is enclosed to be 60,000 years, which is 200 times the time we need. And this assumes that we missed finding a water source in the salt bed. But even after this the water has to corrode through the cannisters and dissolve the waste, which is glassous, and not easy to dissolve, although it will. I think someone will start wondering what they are on top of if they start bring up chunks of stainless steel, quartz, and benezanne (sp) clay, which is used in the container design. If you really want a proven design structure that will withstand the ravages of time, let's build the pyramids over again. We know that they can withstand 300 years easily, I think they date back a couple thousand years. The only future risk will be to those who go inside before 300 years. I think that people will figure out something is wrong when everyone who goes in dies of radiation poisoning. I will probably not be adding much more to this discussion because my productivity dropped greatly during the debate in net.politics. But I'll be glad to answer individual inquires (provided I don't get too many of them) via E-mail. -- Kenneth Ng: Post office: NJIT - CCCC, Newark New Jersey 07102 uucp(for a while) ihnp4!allegra!bellcore!argus!ken !psuvax1!cmcl2!ciap!andromeda!argus!ken *** WARNING: NOT ken@bellcore.uucp *** bitnet(prefered) ken@njitcccc.bitnet or ken@orion.bitnet Spock: "Captain, you are an excellent Starship Captain, but as a taxi driver, you leave much to be desired." Kirk: "What do you mean, 'if both survive' ?" T'Pow: "This combat is to the death"