| "Why not put the waste back where you got it from originally?" I dont claim to be a nuclear physicist so my knowledge on the subject is somewhat limited, however, the refinement of uranium I believe is very similar to that of the refinement of crude oil. I believe it is done in a fractional distillation sort of process where the different uranium isotopes are seperated (U235 vs. U238) and the U238 is "purified". The material was not "created", it was simply concentrated through digging up tons and tons of earth and picking out all the little pieces of interest. What is the problem with simply returning the material after it has depleted beyond applicable use back to the earth (namely the same location it was originally excavated from? Maybe this only applies to uranium as other elements such as plutonium are actually created in an "alchemical" process of bombarding uranium with protons and neutrons (plutonium doesn't naturally exist on the planet since it has such a short half-life). Perhaps it comes to the water itself that is used in nuclear power plants - this water is exposed to the radioactive materials and the water itself becomes radioactive in the process - but again, I dont see where it would be a problem to simply return this material back to the earth where the uranium was originally located. Point is: The radioactive stuff came from somewhere on earth and it has been around since the dawn of the planet and time (and less of it exists today than was around before due to the decaying nature of this type of matter) - so why not just put it back in the ground where all the other radioactive stuff was originally at (and still is even after you dig up the ground to get the original out - not all of it is excavated)? NZR, but interesting topic. :)
[ ashspecz.com ]
[ agpowers@bellsouth.net ] Enthusiasts soon understand each other. --W. Irving.
Are you an enthusiast? If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Albert Einstein
|
