OT: Solar 300+ times as toxic as nuclear...

[tim...]

well, I don't know enough about alpha, beta & gamma rays, but surely they will pass through a thin coating of glass?

whereas the naughty chemicals in a solar panels wont.

tim

[tim...]

I understand the concept of half life, thank you very much

the point about some of the nuclear waste is that it has a half life of thousands of years, not just a "few years"

tim

[Chris Hogg]

Gammas yes, but not alphas and probably not betas, depending on how thin is thin. But that's not got anything to do with leaching.

[dennis]

Yes and what does that mean?... it doesn't decay as fast because there are fewer decay events so there is less radiation per second. The longer it takes to decay the safer it is.

The difficult ones are those of a few decades as you don't really want to keep it stored for a hundred years or so before you reprocess it.

So its still quite active when you reprocess it and the stuff you are left with needs to be stored for a hundred years or so before you can abandon it as safe enough.

This is where putting it underground is a good idea. It doesn't need to be safe for millions of years, a few hundred will see most of it gone. What's left isn't decaying very fast so it isn't very radioactive.

The toxicity of the stuff is no different a problem to that of the waste from solar panels or many other industrial processes except that it is far better managed with radioactive waste these days.

[dennis]

Gamma and beta would but so what? They are non toxic so you could put as much of them into the water table as you like and you wouldn't notice.

A gamma ray is just an electromagnetic wave, it has energy and once that energy has been turned to heat by the surrounding material the gamma ray has gone, forever.

A beta particle is an electron, once it collides with a few atoms its energy is turned to heat and its no different to the ones you get in your body or any other material.

An alpha particle is the nuclei of a helium atom. It bounces about a bit and gives up its heat and then finds a few stray electrons and becomes a helium atom, none toxic and safe.

Just how you think any of these will leech out shows a lack of understanding.

So you agree then, stuff doesn't leech from glass so glassified radioactive waste can be buried safely.

[Tim Streater]

Alpha particles (helium nuclei) are stopped by a sheet of paper. Betas (electrons) are rather more penetrating but do less damage. Gammas are EM radiation like light waves radio waves and X-rays but are much higher energy and will penetrate further. There is not a "thin coating" of glass (where did that come from?) but rather the waste is mixed in with the melted glass.

[Tim Streater]

Look up the Oklo natural reactor, which existed some 2 billion years ago:

and read the section on "Mechanism of the Reactors".

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, that's not the theory. That's the myth.

Oh dear.

I give up.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Virtually the same.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

Lead, cadmium, mercury, bismuth all have essentially infinite half lives.

[harry]

What solvents and stuff is that?

[harry]

Exactly. Like all the crap TurNiP posts. There's more toxic waste in a TV.

[harry]

That'll be why they encase it in concrete and bury it?

[dennis]

More waste than what? One solar panel or a roof full of them? Most TVs are recycled now and much of it is dumped because its hard to recycle, just as its hard to recycle solar panels. So all the cadmium and stuff like that will be dumped on some poor unsuspecting third world country and there is far more of it than in a TV.

[bert]

In article , tim... writes

Nuclear waste comes from a limited number of sources its disposal can bed monitored and controlled. Solar panels are in the hands of many numpties like Harry who will dump them in the local skip or fly tip them.

[bert]

In article , tim... writes

Not as dangerous as standing on Dartmoor.

[Vir Campestris]

Exactly the same difficulty.

There is an enormous amount of waste from dead solar panels, and a much smaller amount of much more dangerous waste from nuclear fission.

Over time the nuclear waste becomes less dangerous.

Andy