🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <60b1nk$mqn@ultranews.duc.auburn.edu>,
David Young <youngd2@mail.auburn.edu> wrote:
>	Someone asked about safe nuclear waste disposal.  For the low 
>level waste, this is probably not too difficult.  The medium level waste 
>is more of a problem.  But the really radioactive waste, which is the 
>spent fuel rods themselves, can be used to generate power rather than 
>being disposed of at all.


Don't be so quick to wave your hand at so-called "low level" waste.

It comes "mondo bulk" and, (as some already know) the term is  anyway
one of the most misleading ones created by the industry.  

In the U.S., it is all nuclear waste that 
is NOT legally high-level waste, including some transuranic waste, 
or mill tailings. It can (and, according to old hands, not uncommonly does) 
have rad levels exceeding spent fuel rods.
(For more "facts" -- from many different points of view ;-) -- see also
<http://laplace.ee.latrobe.edu.au:8080/cgi-bin/mfs/03/anti-nukes/disposal/index.html>
Disposal of nuclear waste)


From <http://www.nirs.org/llwfct.htm>:
=====

"Low-Level" Radioactive Waste includes: 

Irradiated Components and Piping: reactor hardware and pipes that are in 
continual contact with highly radioactive water for the 20 to 30 years the 
reactor operates. The metal becomes "activated" or radioactive itself
from bombardment by neutrons that are released when energy is produced. 
Also called Irradiated Primary System Components. 

Control Rods: from the core of nuclear power plants--rods that regulate and 
stop the nuclear reactions in the reactor core. 

Poison Curtains: which absorb neutrons from the water in the reactor core 
and irradiated fuel (high level waste) pool. 

Resins, Sludges, Filters and Evaporator Bottoms: from cleansing the water 
that circulates around the irradiated fuel in the reactor vessel and in the 
fuel pool, which holds the irradiated fuel when it is removed from the core. 

Entire Nuclear Power Plants if and when they are dismantled. This includes, 
for example, from a typical 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor building floor: 
over 13,000 tons of contaminated concrete and over 1,400 tons of
contaminated reinforcing steel bar. 

The highly radioactive and long-lived reactor wastes are included in the 
"low-level" waste category along with the much less concentrated and 
generally much shorter-lived wastes from medical treatment and diagnosis and
some types of scientific research. 

RADIOACTIVE CONCENTRATION vs VOLUME 

The nuclear industry and government commonly describe "low-level" waste in 
terms of volume although there can be a tremendous concentration of 
radioactivity in a small package and a small concentration in a big package.
The amount of radioactivity, measured in CURIES, indicates how much 
radioactive energy is being emitted by the waste. (1 Curie = 37,000,000,000 or 
37 Billion disintegrations or radioactive emissions per second from a 
radioactive material.) 

The medical waste from diagnosis and treatment shipped in one year from 
most states usually gives off a fraction of one curie of radiation. In 
contrast, each nuclear reactor generates hundreds and thousands of curies in
"low-level" waste every year. 

Nuclear reactor waste is concentrated: Solidified liquid emits about 2 
curies per cubic meter; Filter/Demineralizer sludges emit about 10 curies per 
cubic meter; Cartridge filters emit about 20 curies per cubic meter; 
Demineralizer resins emit about 160 curies per cubic meter. Primary 
Components average 1000 to 5000 curies per cubic meter. 

All of this material is legally considered low-level. 

===