From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed Feb 12 2003 - 16:10:23 MST
Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>Ev Mick wrote:
>
>
>>In a message dated 02/03/2003 10:29:46 AM Central Standard Time,
>>kmb@kai-m-becker.de writes:
>>
>>
>>If Uranium would be as inert and safe for the biosphere as coal or
>>gas, and if the process from Uranium to energy and the disposal of
>>the waste would be as safe as with coal or gas, I'd agree with you.
>>
>>
>>
>>Would you agree then that it would be safe were nuclear wastes to be
>>dropped into tectonic plate subduction zones? Kind of
>>remote...that.....removed from the biosphere altogether I'd say.
>>
>>
>>
>### Subduction zones are geologically pretty unstable, and are covered with
>water - so it's very difficult to drill tunnels, the tunnels can get damaged
>by earthquakes, and the waste can get dissolved in water (as in black smoker
>vents). Also, the removal from biosphere would take geological amounts of
>time (hundreds of thousands of years), compared to a few thousand years for
>the radionuclides to decay.
>
>Deep burial in dry rock is better. It is just as effective in removing the
>waste from the biosphere.
>
>Rafal
>
How about reasonably deep burial (no need to be excessive), but vitrify
it first. If that doesn't seem sufficient, then embed the glass into
asphalt, and bury that. Leeching out of glass is slow, but leeching out
of glass covered with asphalt would take??? If you're really paranoid,
you could encase the whole thing in powdered plaster. This would tend
to keep any water that leaked in from leaking out. My guess is that
200' should be deep enough. That way we can retreive it if we decide we
need to. Lots of the details about this could be argued, but even just
as I said it, it should suffice. The highly radioactive stuff only
lasts a few years. If the slightly radioactive stuff leaks out
slowly... well, that's nothing new. It's been doing that forever.
That said, reasonable care is desireable. It's just paranoia that
isn't. So make things as safe as is feasible, but don't worry about
keeping things safe forever.
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