Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/02/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Don't forget about creating an oral tradition in the communities near the burial sites. They will still want to know its down there 10,000years from now. Chris At 01:17 PM 2/2/2006, you wrote: >Hmmm - I can't see a plasma furnace as doing anything to the nuclear >properties of the isotopes - creating a plasma means pulling off one >or more electrons to create an excited gas. That's all chemical, >however, it's the properties of the atomic nucleus that determine >radioactivity and I can't see making a plasma affecting the nuclear >properties at all. Not nearly enough energy. > >The discussions I have heard about "burning" waste involve using a >very high neutron "flux" to change the fission fragments into >different nuclides which will decay much more slowly with much less >nasty high-energy radioactivity. But it takes a BIG neutron source to >do this - and I've only heard it discussed in terms of how to use >fusion plants to make a sufficient number of neutrons to burn out the >old fission high-level waste and convert it into low-level waste. It >would work but we dont' have the neutron sources to make it happen. > >Adam > > >On 2/2/06, John Black <jblack@ambio.net> wrote: > > > > > > > Some of the past and present solutions to this waste seem inadequate > > > and short sighted. > > > Others are more credible, but considering the consequences of mistakes, > > > I remain skeptical > > > and would prefer development of other options. > > > > > > > What ever happened to the process of burning the waste in a plasma > > furnace > > that converts it to harmless byproducts? As I understand it, plasma > > temperatures completely disrupt the atomic structure of the radioactive > > waste (or anything for that matter) into a high energy soup of subatomic > > particles which, when cooled, revert to more harmless substances. I > know it > > take a lot of temperature to run a plasma furnace but the bulk of the > > waste > > is not that great. > > > > Perhaps I misunderstood the process. > > > > JB (who lives downwind of Oak Ridge) > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information Chris Saganich, Sr. Physicist Weill Medical College of Cornell University New York Presbyterian Hospital Ph. 212.746.6964 Fax. 212.746.4800 A0049