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Halving Half Lives
An anonymous reader writes "PhysicsWeb is reporting that German scientists may have found a way to significantly reduce the radioactive decay time of nuclear waste. This could render the waste harmless in just tens of years and make disposal much less difficult as opposed to current standards. From the article: 'Their proposed technique - which involves slashing the half-life of an alpha emitter by embedding it in a metal and cooling the metal to a few degrees kelvin - could therefore avoid the need to bury nuclear waste in deep repositories, a hugely expensive and politically difficult process. But other researchers are skeptical and believe that the technique contradicts well-established theory as well as experiment.'"
One word: Challenger.
On the bright side, it would seriously reduce the lobbying strength of the AARP.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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I'm so glad I'll be able to life in Prypiat in only 3280 years...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"How do you power your cooling process?"
"With that nulcear power plant in the next town over."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Ah yes... finally we can play several episodes of that beloved franchise called Half-Life 2... oh wait...
"A sysadmin is a cross between a detective, a police officer, a gardener, a doctor and a fireman"
It all makes sense now, this is why we are only getting episodes!
*runs*
The Marianas Trench? Are you insane, man? Don't you remember what happened last time we dumped nukes in the Pacific?
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
In order to get the radiation down to safe levels, you have to out-radiate everything up to that level. Same radiation, doesn't matter if it takes the normal amount of time or less.
Actually it matters quite a bit. There are plenty of places where all that radiation would be hardly noticed, and if the timescale is lessened to something managable by today's governments, we will be able to avoid the monumental task of warning future generations.
I'd say that's quite a big win, if this pans out.
Wow this could have made Half-Life 2 come out YEARS sooner. At least there's still time to apply it to Duke Nukem Forever...
I don't think it has anything to do with genetics. I think it's just that the guy who chose Germany as his civilization is changing entertainers to scientists...
Not a problem anymore. Just store the spent fuel near the Jewish Anti-Defamation League and give Mel Gibson a few drinks and have a news reporter standing by. The chill from the ADL will zap that spent fuel down to absolute zero in no time.
> What's wrong with just launching it into the sun?
If we pollute the sun we'll really be in trouble!
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
let's see..
nuclear scientists say this works and can happen, and have done experiments.
but Slashdot user swchrad (312009) disagrees! Well shit, guess we can abandon that idea then.
I love the "informative" mod, btw. Nice touch.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Japan has pleanty of giant, radioactive monsters; how could one more hurt?
What's this? Another weblog? On transit?
You could build a nuclear reactor to power the waste disposal facility.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Even worse, what if the nuclear waste explodes and triggers a fusion reaction on the surface of the sun. How much trouble would we be then?
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."