Re: Being eyeballed

In message <498adf99$2$fuzhry+tra$mr2ice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Shmuel Metz
<spamtrap@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
In <$d0YFAHd9ZiJFw5n@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, on 02/04/2009
at 01:59 PM, Robert Sneddon <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

Radioactive compounds which are of no use elsewhere in industry of
medicine

C 'of' 'or'?

Tyop. This Eytie keyboard I dug out of the cupboard recently is a lot
better at translating my spasmodic finger movements into proper English,
but since it's a buckling-spring ripoff of a Model M with go-faster
stripes I'm not too surprised. The occasional glitch does get through my
MK1 Eyeball grammar checking process occasionally, especially if it's
not a spelling error per se.

With that definition, I'm not sure that there's enough waste to worry
about. What I'm sure of is that we're labelling as "waste" things that we
could use were we so inclined.

We don't need most radio-isotopes that much, and compulsively hoarding
them and spending lots of effort to keep them out of the local
bio-environment is probably counter-productive (see "Yucca Mountain" as
a boondoggling example). Worst case we can refine them out of seawater
if it turns out we really need them in tonne quantities, or simply start
tapping them out of the waste purification process in the future.


emit radiation

I'm glad that you qualified that, since otherwise that wouldn't eliminate
any matter that I'm familiar with.

You're thinking that alpha and beta particles are electromagnetic in
nature? The particles do radiate, but they are not radiation.

but the first 99% volume reduction is well worthwhile given the
returns of reusing the U-235 and U-238 left over in a
partially-spent fuel rod

I'm more concerned with the Plutonium; it isn't waste by your definition,
just fuel that we're afraid to exploit due to proliferation concerns.

Unless the US plans to build lots and lots of new nuclear warheads or
starts handing out their excess supplies of Pu-239 to anyone who asks
for it, proliferation is not really a problem. Other countries reprocess
fuel, remove the small amounts of Pu produced and store it safely. There
are reactor operating regimes that can burn the Pu produced now but at
the moment uranium is so cheap and plentiful nobody's bothering to
invest in the new reactor designs required.

It's possible to fuel and operate power reactors to minimise the amount
of weapons-capable Pu-239 produced. This results in more Pu-240 which
pollutes the smaller amounts of Pu-239. It is very difficult to separate
them out since the two isotopes have very similar masses and sizes.
Separating U-235 out of U-238 is a lot easier by comparison. A bomb
design with lots of Pu-240 in the mix tends to squib -- the failure of
the North Korean nuke test shot might well have been the result of such
contamination.
--
To reply, my gmail address is nojay1 Robert Sneddon
.

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