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RE: [cdn-nucl-l] nuclear waste train routes
Dear
Katie,
Let's first
consider what is "nuclear waste."
A pretty
general definition used by some folks is byproducts of nuclear
reactions.
By this
definition, the material from which all the trains running through your
village, as well as your village and all the rest of this planet is "nuclear
waste," as it was all produced by the nuclear reactions in stars, novae and
supernovae (this excludes hydrogen in water etc., an un-burnt nuclear fusion
fuel).
Other folks
prefer to define nuclear waste as radioactive byproducts of nuclear
reactions.
But this is
also a fairly general definition, that would include things like medical
radiopharmaceuticals used in diagnosing diseases and treating cancers, etc.
Radiopharmaceuticals typically do not become "waste"
until they are discharged by patients, for example in urine.
Also,
radiopharmaceuticals are shipped by automobile or helicopter, not
train.
Besides
which, the radioactive byproducts definition includes a good deal of
what the earth is made of, since some of those primordial siderogenic
products remain radioactive to this day -- particularly Potassium-40,
Uranium-238 and Thorium-232.
Other
cosmogenic radionuclides are constantly supplied to the surface of the earth by
interactions with cosmic radiation -- most notably Carbon-14,
which scientists use to date animal and human remains.
Still others
prefer the far more specific definition of used fuel from nuclear power
stations.
While it is
certainly radioactive, calling it "waste" is misleading, in my
opinion.
Only about 1%
of the material in used nuclear fuel is true "waste," the rest being
mostly unchanged uranium, as it was dug up from the
ground.
That 1%
incidentally, has a radioactive half-life many millions of times shorter than
the radioactive substances in the earth and in our bodies (Potassium-40 accounts
for about 2/3 of our body's radioactivity of about 8,000 disintegrations per
second, and has a half-life of ~1.8 billion years; uranium has a half-life of
4.5 billion years, which is why its still here, long since the earth has
formed).
So as you can
see, we are effectively converting the long-lived radioactive "waste" in the
earth, to very short-lived stuff -- and getting a lot of energy out of it in the
process !
Hope this
helps you understand a bit better.
Cheers,
Hi there,
I have heard rumers that a nuclear waste train
runs through my local villiage of Poleworth (Nr Tamworth-Middlands) and im
looking for evidence supporting this to make it public knowledge if the rumers
are true, can you help?
Thanks,
Regards
Katie