High-level waste is carefully stored over its 10-year lifetime by the nuclear industry. This is done above-ground in sealed tanks. It is not proposed to bury nuclear waste underground until activity has fallen to the medium-level category. Instead of underground burial, however, we now consider that medium-level waste is delivered for safekeeping to individual households.I haven't checked the math and obviously the medium term is a bit glossed over, but in principle we're not talking about all that much stuff here. Certainly long-term low-grade waste is comparable in volume to the gold we've got, and we do a pretty good job keeping that safe.
We take the amount of the waste so delivered to be that which has been generated over the 70 years from 1990 to 2060....
... Over this period a typical family of four would accumulate 4 x 70 = 280 person years of vitrified nuclear waste, which for an all-nuclear energy economy would weigh about 2 kilograms. Supplied inside a thick metal case, capable of withstanding a house fire or a flood, the waste would form an object of about the size of a small orange, which it could be made to resemble in colour and surface texture - this would ensure that any superficial damage to the object could easily be noticed and immediately rectified by the nuclear industry.
The radioactive materials inside the orange would be in no danger of getting smeared around the house, not like jam or honey. The radioactive materials would stay put inside the metal orange-skin. Indeed the orange would be safe to handle freely but for the γ-rays emerging from it all the time. The effect on a person of the γ-rays would be like the X-rays used by the medical profession. If one were to stand for a minute at a distance of about 5 yards from the newly acquired orange, the radiation dose received would be comparable to a medical X-ray.
Unlike particles of matter, γ-rays do not stay around. Once emitted γ-rays exist only for a fleeting moment, during which brief time they are absorbed and destroyed by the material through which they pass. Some readers will be familiar with the massive stone walls of old houses and barns in the north of England. If a γ-ray emitting orange were placed behind a well-made stone wall 2 feet thick, one could lounge in safety for days on the shielded side, and for a wall 3 feet thick one would be safe for a lifetime.
Our family of four would therefore build a small thick-walled cubicle inside the home to ensure safe storage of the family orange. After several generations, the waste inside the orange would have declined to the low-level category when the orange could be taken out of its cubicle and safely admired for an hour or two as a family heirloom....
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posted by jeffburdges at 9:54 AM on November 12, 2008