Quote:
Originally Posted by flecc
1) In any case, this objection contains the myth of danger and longevity. Long lived wastes are not highly toxic, highly toxic wastes are short lived, the higher the toxicity, the shorter the life.
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I have to disagree that long-lived wastes are not highly toxic, they're just toxic in a different way.
Plutonium-239 has a half life of 24,110 years. Radiation from Plutonium-239 comes primarily from the emission of Alpha particles, which only travel short distances (less than a metre), but will cause extreme damage to any living tissue they pass through. Contamination of water courses through leakage of this type of material would be extremely hazardous. Transporting this stuff around by road, rail or sea is very safe... unless an accident results in broaching of the containment vessels. Burying it is extremely safe... as long as the setting is geologically stable for several 10's of 1000's of years, and as long as the containers in which the waste is sealed remain intact for those 10's of 1000's of years.
Heres a quote from the
Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Radioactive Waste Project:
Irradiated nuclear fuel rods discharged from commercial nuclear power plants are highly radioactive, a million times more so than when they were first loaded into a reactor core as “fresh” fuel. If unshielded, irradiated nuclear fuel just removed from a reactor core could deliver a lethal dose of radiation to a person standing three feet away in just seconds. Even after decades of radioactive decay, a few minutes unshielded exposure could deliver a lethal dose. Certain radioactive elements (such as plutonium-239) in “spent” fuel will remain hazardous to humans and other living beings for hundreds of thousands of years. Other radioisotopes will remain hazardous for millions of years. Thus, these wastes must be shielded for centuries and isolated from the living environment for hundreds of millenia.
Highly radioactive wastes are dangerous and deadly wherever they are, whether stored at reactor sites (indoors in pools or outdoors in dry casks); transported on the roads, rails, or waterways; or dumped on Native American lands out West.
Regards,
Elephants