I was speaking to a relative who spent his life working in the nuclear industry. He was lamenting on the way the industry had been run resulting in a complete loss of public trust. His view was that it could have been so much better and could now be solving our energy problems in many constructive ways.
- They had veiled themselves in secrecy rather than being completely transparent.
- They had covered up leaks and even meltdowns (Windscale 1957) with government and nuclear operatives colluding to stop damaging information getting out.
- They had irresponsibly always tried to take the cheapest options for disposing of nuclear waste instead of the safest. It took Greenpeace to expose and put a stop to their ridiculous dumping of waste in barrels at sea (on a fishing ground!).
As a result of this people were totally distrustful of anything they did, said or claimed. Of course this has not been helped by a series of catastrophes – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and the Japanese Tsunami to name but three. As a consequence the nuclear industry has not developed as it might have.
One of their biggest problems was how to dispose of nuclear waste. They had not come up with a cheap, safe method. At present it is piling up on site. But my relative had a solution that would not only help with the disposal but also drastically reduce peoples’ power bills. He suggested that we should vitrify the low level waste emitting Alpha radiation and put plates of the vitrified material in our immersion tanks.
The vitrified material would not dissolve, would constantly emit heat to warm water for free, its radiation would be blocked by the water and wall of the tank and the industry could get rid of a lot of its waste. It was completely safe and an effective way of heating water and reducing bills. He claimed it was a win win situation.
If only the industry and politicians had handled things better we might not all be so skeptical.
Postscript:
There are three primary types of radiation:
- Alpha – these are fast moving helium atoms. They have high energy, typically in the MeV range, but due to their large mass, they are stopped by just a few inches of air, or a piece of paper.
- Beta – these are fast moving electrons. They typically have energies in the range of a few hundred keV to several MeV. Since electrons are might lighter than helium atoms, they are able to penetrate further, through several feet of air, or several millimeters of plastic or less of very light metals.
- Gamma – these are photons, just like light, except of much higher energy, typically from several keV to several MeV. X-Rays and gamma rays are really the same thing, the difference is how they were produced. Depending on their energy, they can be stopped by a thin piece of aluminum foil, or they can penetrate several inches of lead.