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Giant Laser Transmutes Nuclear Waste
paulnuyu writes "NewScientist is reporting that scientists have transmuted nuclear waste with the Vulcan Glass Laser, cutting iodine-129's half-life from 15.7 million years down to just 25 minutes (as iodine-128). The advance is remarkable, but not practical: the laser would need power from a number of power plants to transmute the waste produced from just one nuclear plant."
The Vulcan laser can produce short pulses of enormous power - a million billion watts. Pulses were fired at a small lump of gold, which produced enough gamma radiation to knock out single neutrons from iodine-129, converting it to iodine-128. The results of the experiment will be published by the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics.
As if needing the power of several plants to operate wasn't expensive enough, they fire the laser at a lump of gold? Is this a new Austin Powers movie in the making?
--"The perfect example of the man of action is the suicide." - William Carlos Williams
Now all we need to do is create self-replicating nano-lasers and nano-nuclear power plants, so that the nano-power plants can make more of themselves to power the nano-lasers that were made to clean up after the nano-power plants that made more of themselves to power the nano-lasers that made more of themselves to clean up after the nano-power plants...
Grey goo, here we come!
Kirk: Spock, I know! We'll use your glass laser to destroy our radiocative trash!
.... illogical.
Spock: Captain, that is
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...if it needs power from many conventional nuclear power plants to process the waste from a single one?
In just 30 years we will have fusion power plants -- therefore, all we have to do is store those nasty nuclear byproducts for just 30 years.
Preferably in Utah. Oh wait.
"Giant Waste of Electricity Transmutes Grant Money into Laser"
w00t!
I bet _that's_ a fun lab to play in. Just don't hook up the controls to the MCP, boys.
End of Line
It is possible to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and reuse it in different nuclear reactors. Reprocessing involves more handling of the spent fuel and (as far as I know) is not done in the US but it is done in Europe. I worked at a lab in France where some of this handling is done (either just testing or reprocessing - I'm not sure I was just there to use the magnetometer). Apparently radiation leaks do happen. Thus I'm not saying this is definately the way to go. It may be better than the alternatives, for now at least.
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Remember, the US elected the man who wanted to use "clean coal". (This statement rings in my memory as it singlehandedly changed my friend, a former US Marine, away from voting for Bush.)
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a war on terrorism? How can we end a war on a method?
The advance is remarkable, but not practical: the laser would need power from a number of power plants to transmute the waste produced from just one nuclear plant.
They wouldn't happened to have tested this little bugger out on, say, Thursday, would they?
No comment.
Excess plutonium shouldn't be a problem. My associate, Mr. Moon Kim Sang will buy as much as you can produce.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage