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Re: [cdn-nucl-l] Swedes deliver nuclear power to the people

This post says:
The CLAB facility must process 220 tonnes of fuel a year...
    I am wondering what the density of these "220 tonnes" is: how many kilograms per cubic meter?  If this was water, with a density of 1 gm per cc, we would arrive at 220,000,000 cc (if I haven't slipped a decimal point), or, at  100 * 100 * 100 = 1,000,000 cc per cu meter, 220 cubic meters of "waste", which is a cube a hair over 6 meters a side, or roughly 19ft per side, for us hairy-eared Americans. Assuming a density of 18.7 gm/cc (density of Uranium, Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 39th Edition), or a relative density of 18.7, the volume of the waste would be roughly 11.8 cu meters, or a cube 2.3 meters a side. Obviously the "truth" lies somewhere between these two extremes.
 
    However: whether it is 11.8 cubic meters or 220 cubic meters: this volume of waste is obviously minor compared to the volume of material moved to obtain the fuel in the first place. It is absolutely trivial compared to the volume of coal which would have to be mined in order to supply an equivalent amount of energy.  I strongly suspect that it is also trivial compared to the clinker produced by burning that much coal.
 
    I have noticed a tendency on the part of the Press to throw large numbers around; thus making problems seem intractable.  Reminds me of the sign I had on my radio in college, to keep the cleaning lady from tuning to her favorite religious revival station while cleaning the "suite" I occupied with 2 other room-mates: it was a 3x5 card with a 1 kilohm resistor attached, reading Warning!!! 1,000.000,000 ohm resistor!!! The number of zeros was impressive - scared the panties off of her (she reported me to the dorm monitor (a physics grad student), who split a gut laughing and told her very sternly NOT TO TOUCH IT).
 
    In this case, a little comparison of the volume of "waste" to the volume of the average single-family house would have been useful, I think.