| Author |
Message
|
| keeban |
 Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject: Bacteria cleaning up nuclear power plant waste? |
 |
|
Forum Freshman
Joined: 14 Mar 2008
Posts: 5
|
| Has anyone checked into developing a highly radioactive strain of bacteria like the radiodurans strain into being able to oxidize, process, etc nuclear power plant waste into a inert substance so we could use nuclear power plants to provide our energy needs? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
| Harold14370 |
| Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
Forum Professor
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1668
Location: Pennsylvania
|
| Radioactive decay occurs in the nucleus, so it is not affected by oxidation or any chemical process. We do, in fact, use nuclear power plants to supply our energy needs. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| keeban |
| Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Forum Freshman
Joined: 14 Mar 2008
Posts: 5
|
| so theirs no way to speed up the decay of radioactive waste, or to process it into a relatively safe form? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Harold14370 |
| Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Forum Professor
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1668
Location: Pennsylvania
|
| It can be processed into a form that will not leach into the water supply. It is called vitrification. But it will have to be buried and kept in a safe place while it decays off. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Sciler |
| Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
Forum Freshman
Joined: 10 May 2008
Posts: 43
Location: UK
|
| how long would that take? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Pong |
| Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Forum Professor
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 1392
|
Effectively forever.
Hey why not sink it at a tectonic plate convergence, so it's carried under and lost forever? Oceanside of Aleut or Kurile island chains? I'll bet we wouldn't have to drill deep. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Harold14370 |
| Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Forum Professor
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1668
Location: Pennsylvania
|
According to this article it would be on the order of a few hundred years for reprocessed fuel (plutonium removed) and 10,000 years for non-reprocessed fuel with the plutonium still in it to decay to a level equivalent to uranium ore.
http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/cnf_sectionE.htm
The anti-nuke sites will claim hundreds of thousand or a million years, but they aren't going to be happy with a toxicity equivalent to ore. They want it all gone. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
