A warning to work for 10,000 won't be needed because the material won't be there. Within a few hundred years, that radioactive "waste" will be dug up and reused.
Like the air you exhale still contains most of the oxygen, the fuel we discard still contains a large fraction of the enriched material. Since Jimmy Carter banned reprocessing in the 1970's, we have no choice but to dispose of fuel that still contains large amounts of usable material in the form of (principly) U-235 and P-238. In a typical power reactor today, by the end of the fuel cycle 30%-40% of the energy is coming from fissioning plutonium. The fuel is discharged because there is too high a build-up of fission products that absorb neutrons. Just like suffocating in a closed room. It's not the lack of oxygen that gets you, it's the buildup of carbon dioxide.
Back to my point, before too long people will figure out that throwing away fuel that took large amounts of electricty to enrich is a bad idea. Within 300 years all the short lived, high energy fission products will have decayed leaving only the long lived, low energy materials like Uranium and Plutonium. You can handle those with your hands with no shielding. (Little known fact: Plutonium is an alpha emitter. A sheet of paper will stop all radiation from plutionium. As long as you don't eat it or breath it in, it won't hurt you.) So our decendents will say "thank you," dig up the material, reprocess it, and keep their "X-box 36 Million" consoles and electric flying cars running.
If there are signs, they should say "Dig here! Free energy!"
(Know your sources - I've been a Nuclear Engineer for 25 years)
I've been a nuclear engineer at electric utilities for over 25 years, so let me offer a few thoughts:
- Smaller, lower-cost nuclear power plants (of the designs already generically approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and those being built by South Africa and being considerd by China) could be used to convert water into hydrogen.
- This hydrogen can be used to power cars. The big three are already experimenting with hydrogen powered cars. Hummer is building a HumVee for Gov. Schwartzenager (sp?) that's hydrogen powered. The exhaust is water vapor.
- Nuclear power already provdes 25% of the electricity in the U.S.
- All of the nuclear waste from the 103 U.S. nuclear power plants can be stored in an area the size of a football field. It's made of a hard ceramic - no liquids. We have a place (Yucca Mountain), the money (billions collected from utility customers since 1982 but with the majority withheld by congress), and the technology to dispose of all of the nuclear waste permanently.
- The U.S. has been described as the "Saudi Arabia of Uranium." We (and Canada) have vast supplies of Uranium. Hundreds of years worth.
- Should the supply of uranium start to become limited, we have breeder technology (developed in the US but cancelled by Pres. Carter) that actually produces more fuel than it burns.
- There are no other viable alternatives. We have exploited the usable hydro locations, adding air polution controls to coal burners makes the power prohibitivly expensive, and the industry has always known that the natural gas bubble would only last for about 20 years before the price skyrocketed.
-I think the choice is clear but it takes political willpower and a willingness to take a long term view. Both are in short supply because the American people typically punish leaders who favor the long term over the short term.
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A warning to work for 10,000 won't be needed because the material won't be there. Within a few hundred years, that radioactive "waste" will be dug up and reused. Like the air you exhale still contains most of the oxygen, the fuel we discard still contains a large fraction of the enriched material. Since Jimmy Carter banned reprocessing in the 1970's, we have no choice but to dispose of fuel that still contains large amounts of usable material in the form of (principly) U-235 and P-238. In a typical power reactor today, by the end of the fuel cycle 30%-40% of the energy is coming from fissioning plutonium. The fuel is discharged because there is too high a build-up of fission products that absorb neutrons. Just like suffocating in a closed room. It's not the lack of oxygen that gets you, it's the buildup of carbon dioxide. Back to my point, before too long people will figure out that throwing away fuel that took large amounts of electricty to enrich is a bad idea. Within 300 years all the short lived, high energy fission products will have decayed leaving only the long lived, low energy materials like Uranium and Plutonium. You can handle those with your hands with no shielding. (Little known fact: Plutonium is an alpha emitter. A sheet of paper will stop all radiation from plutionium. As long as you don't eat it or breath it in, it won't hurt you.) So our decendents will say "thank you," dig up the material, reprocess it, and keep their "X-box 36 Million" consoles and electric flying cars running. If there are signs, they should say "Dig here! Free energy!" (Know your sources - I've been a Nuclear Engineer for 25 years)
I've been a nuclear engineer at electric utilities for over 25 years, so let me offer a few thoughts: - Smaller, lower-cost nuclear power plants (of the designs already generically approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and those being built by South Africa and being considerd by China) could be used to convert water into hydrogen. - This hydrogen can be used to power cars. The big three are already experimenting with hydrogen powered cars. Hummer is building a HumVee for Gov. Schwartzenager (sp?) that's hydrogen powered. The exhaust is water vapor. - Nuclear power already provdes 25% of the electricity in the U.S. - All of the nuclear waste from the 103 U.S. nuclear power plants can be stored in an area the size of a football field. It's made of a hard ceramic - no liquids. We have a place (Yucca Mountain), the money (billions collected from utility customers since 1982 but with the majority withheld by congress), and the technology to dispose of all of the nuclear waste permanently. - The U.S. has been described as the "Saudi Arabia of Uranium." We (and Canada) have vast supplies of Uranium. Hundreds of years worth. - Should the supply of uranium start to become limited, we have breeder technology (developed in the US but cancelled by Pres. Carter) that actually produces more fuel than it burns. - There are no other viable alternatives. We have exploited the usable hydro locations, adding air polution controls to coal burners makes the power prohibitivly expensive, and the industry has always known that the natural gas bubble would only last for about 20 years before the price skyrocketed. -I think the choice is clear but it takes political willpower and a willingness to take a long term view. Both are in short supply because the American people typically punish leaders who favor the long term over the short term.