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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/sci/ - Science & Math

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5146975 No.5146975 [Reply] [Original]

I'm confused. When a nuclear reactor explodes they just seal it up and that's that? Isn't there a way to get rid of it?

>> No.5146978

why would you want to move it

>> No.5146993

Why dont we just take the radioactive material... and push it somewhere else!

>> No.5147121

when something is exposed to radiation, that thing starts to radiate as well

moving the nuclear waste still leaves behind a bunch of junk that is also radioactive, and handling that material risks more exposure

it's safer to cap it and wait until it's decayed to something that isn't dangerous

>> No.5147189

>>5147121
This

Moving radioactive material from a failed reactor can cause more problems than it solves.

>> No.5147208

>Isn't there a way to get rid of it?
It's called waiting for two half-lives to elapse.

>> No.5147225

Why not send it to space?

>> No.5147234

Why not create a vacuum flux so the laws of physics change and cause the material to decay faster?

>> No.5147237

>>5147225
Seriously?
SERIOUSLY?

Do you have any idea how fucking expensive it is to send shit into space? The cost for sending several TONS of hazardous material would be absolutely ridiculous. It would be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to just put a structure over it to separate it from the surrounding environment until it cools off(see Chernobyl).

>> No.5147243

>>5147225
It's less dangerous and cheaper to box it up and leave it on the ground. Think about what happens if your space garbage launch fails. Wham, radioactive waste everywhere!

The high-level radioactive waste isn't the problem really. It's small enough you can store it easily, and since it's more radioactive that means it has a short half-life and will decay rapidly. The real trouble is low-level contaminated stuff like concrete or dirt. It's not *very* radioactive but it's still radioactive enough you don't want to mix it into your food, so you have to seal it away from groundwater and air, and there's a lot of it (since it's low level contamination).

>> No.5147246

>>5147225
>rocket explodes
>we cancer now

It'd be fine if you were to catapult it into the sun. Just not via rocket.
In any case there is nothing to justify going out of the way to do so.

>> No.5147291

Mass drivers catapulting waste at sun? I guess that makes moving/loading waste an issue but, I mean, science?

>> No.5147304
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5147304

why not nuke it?

>> No.5147314

>>5147304
Oh gosh.

>> No.5147319

>>5147237
Plus, if your efforts to send it into space fail catastrophically you're likely to disperse extremely hazardous waste into the atmosphere.

>> No.5147465

>>5147208
>It's called waiting for two half-lives to elapse.
fucking what?

>> No.5147491

>>5146975
If i'm not mistaken you can just leave it until it becomes less dangerous and THEN move it. Why do things the hard way if their is an easier and better solution?

>> No.5147532

>>5147208
>waiting two half lives
oh fuck. please, please, please don't be that fucking retarded

>> No.5147553

>>5147532
1 Unit - (0.5 Units) = 0.5 Units
(0.5 Units) - (0.5 Units) = 0 Units

Learn to fraction.

>> No.5147556

>>5147208
That level of stupid isn't even funny.

>> No.5147558

>>5147553 ten star post

>> No.5147559

>>5147553
See
>>5147556

>> No.5147566

>>5147225
The mathematically-inclined answer so far left unsaid is <span class="math">\Delta V[/spoiler]

>> No.5147570
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5147570

>>5147553

>> No.5147572

Why don't we just shoot it at terrorists? Oh wait we already do that..

>> No.5147573

we could invite the terrorists to eat it all up (or maybe tourists?).
then they walk away again with their bellies full.

>> No.5147580
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5147580

>>5147572
it's an effective way of preventing terrorism, those kids will never be terrorists now

>> No.5147582

>>5146975
just so you know, nuclear reactors don't generally explode

when they call it a "nuclear meltdown" that's quite literally what happens

nuclear reactors are supposed to have controlled fission reactions going on inside of them. They are controlled by various processes. If the control processes fail or are broken or something, then the nuclear fission process can escalate beyond safe parameters.

This doesn't mean it explodes, because it's not got the proper critical mass for that to happen. Instead what happens is it just gets REALLY REALLY REALLY HOT.

And so the entire reactor eventually gets so damn hot that it melts. It melts so much and is still so hot that it melts right through the floor of the building it's housed in. Melts right into the ground.

Back in the sixties some people were afraid that it would melt right through the planet, look up The China Syndrome for more information on that.

As we know now, that doesn't happen. But nuclear meltdowns are still very bad because all that radioactive material seeps into the ground and into the water. It also burns up and spreads into the atmosphere.

The reasons for why we don't generally move it around are given already in the thread.

>> No.5147583

>>5147580
They're certainly still causing terror.

>> No.5147591

>>5147582
How are the pellets of fission fuel transported when they aren't surrounded by water or whatever coolant is specific to their reactor? If they are hot enough to melt through the reactor vessel, how are the pellets even manipulated and placed in there to begin with?

>> No.5147624

>>5147558
Thank you.

>>5147559
Sorry.

>> No.5147636

>>5147591
Learn to critical mass

>> No.5147639

>>5147582
IIRC the China Syndrome scenario was that the core would melt through a bunch of rock until it found a pocket of water, then the water would flash into steam and kablooie radioactive steam and flaming core-bits get splattered all over the landcape.

In Chernobyl under the reactor core they had a bunch of flowing molten core material. Checkout the wikipedia article on "Corium".

>>5147591
The genius part about nuclear reactors is that they are reactors. If the fuel elements are far enough apart that they can't maintain a self-sustaining reaction, then they're relatively cool and inert. I mean, you wouldn't want to sleep on one but they're not super-hot. I think they're usually stored/transported in metal tubes with a lot of airspace around each one (and very strict rules about how many can be near each other).

>> No.5147646

>>5147591
they're only hot when they're undergoing nuclear fusion

>> No.5147663

>>5147646
>uranium
>fusion

Please die.

>> No.5147693

>>5147583
Fuck you, I laughed. Now I feel bad.

>> No.5147711
File: 84 KB, 640x480, 1307468237314.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5147711

Did somebody say "corium"?

>> No.5147743

>>5147663
lol whoops my bad

>> No.5147757

>>5147743
I am sorry that I told you to die. My wife is making me apologize for the harsh language.

>> No.5147761

>nuclear reactor explode
>nuclear reactor
>explode
Fucking hell you're an ignorant one. How did you manage to survive long enough in this world to reach a computer, without learning that nuclear reactors tend not to be physically capable of, you know, exploding?

>> No.5147763

>>5147757
lol it's cool bro

it's just that there's not too many letters difference between fission and fusion >.>

>> No.5147774

>>5147761
Is a steam explosion not an explosion? News to me.

>> No.5147787

>>5147774
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiler_explosion
Wiki seems to think so.