Nuclear is Our Future

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Bellona Waste Report

Bellona has issued a report stating that there are 21,000 spent fuel assemblies in a storage system that will explode if water leaks in, and that water is leaking in.

It's kinda flawed.

1. All uncontrolled reactions are not explosions. A reaction can be uncontrolled merely because a person or mechanism is not in charge of it--there were 16 natural nuclear reactors in an African uranium deposit, and they formed in a very similar configuration to this postulated accident. How did they stop? The energy released heated the water and eventually boiled it--and without the water, there's no reaction. After it shut down, it cooled off, letting the water back in; this process was repeated for millions of years until it simply ran out of fuel. No explosions were involved--it didn't even disrupt the ore.
2. There will never be a homogeneous mixture. Ceramic does not dissolve in water, there's no way to get enough water into the fuel assemblies even if it did, and expecting every single one of those 21,000 tubes to open up, let the water in, and not let any of it out afterward is ridiculous.
3. This isn't gasoline. A critical configuration in one area does not create a critical configuration in another nearby area.

Sounds a bit like the Brookhaven Report, which was written in 1957 with no access to computers, and said that if the core of a nuclear reactor were pulverized and deposited equally into the lungs of 10,000 people, they would die. Well, yes--but what's your point? The amount of water in a filled bathtub could drown 40,000 people. Blaming nuclear power for things it didn't, doesn't, and can't do doesn't save lives. It cynically manipulates tragedy for political purposes.

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3 Comments:

  • Also worth noting that the natural nuclear reactors also provide a good instance of how radioactive substances can be stored safely undergound for millions of years without any migration- a good lesson for those arguing against the burial of waste. Of course, soil quality and other factors will be different at different places, but the general observation is not unsound.

    By Anonymous Nuclear Dreams, at Mon Oct 29, 04:18:00 PM CDT  

  • 40,000?

    Your bathtub must be much bigger than mine. Mine looks like it probably holds about 400 liters, so that makes 10cc per person. Even if you put water on the brain I don't know that that's enough water to kill someone. I'm certain it's not enough to drown someone...

    By Blogger Andrew Foland, at Sun Nov 04, 11:08:00 AM CST  

  • It's water in the lungs that kills...

    By Blogger George Carty, at Sat Jun 07, 02:02:00 PM CDT  

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