Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Everything
2
radioactive waste disposal
(
idea
)
by
Whipster
Fri Oct 05 2001 at 21:27:12
Most of the waste generated in nuclear power plants is NOT
fission products
. Fission products are contained within the
fuel element
s, and are disposed of with the spent
core
. These fission products, mostly
Krypton
and
Xenon
and their
decay daughter
s, are relatively short-lived, decaying over a period of hours or days, not years. Most waste instead comes from
activation
of
corrosion product
s from the reactor plant plumbing, traveling through the high
neutron flux
in the core. These are minimized with modern
reactor chemistry
and modern reactor plant construction materials.
Most spent cores do release some
decay heat
, but nearly enough to require active
refrigeration
of their storage
media
. In most cases, passive cooling is more than sufficient to prevent damage to spent cores.
Even if
seismic
activity DID rupture storage
containment
, what would cause the
radioactive material
to
migrate
to the surface? As long as no air or water circulates through the buried waste, there is no risk of release. Most high-level waste is
incinerated
and bedded in glass anyway, making it very difficult for the radioactive material to
diffuse
into the surrounding environment.
high-level radioactive waste
Hanford Nuclear Reservation
Irradiator
Wharfinger
Ack! Summer is almost over and I forgot to shave the cat!
Adventures on a US Nuclear Reactor Site
Nuclear Bunker for the United States Congress
Letter of Complaint
Priority Mail
Chernobyl
Fossil Reactor
reciprocal altruism
studded leather armor
wind turbine
The Human Umlaut
phosphorus-32
Elliot Lake
radioactive waste
Making an atomic bomb
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