The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

[LP]

https://reneweconomy.com.au/nuclear-thug...te-owners/

That articles uses terms like racist thuggery in relation to discussions around Federal nuclear energy policies, I suspect that says more about the author than anyone they comment on or the technology in question.

On the waste issue, particle or photon radiation diminishes by the inverse square law. Most medium and high level waste is stored under water, just one metre of water cover cuts radiation emission by 1/2, two metres of water cover and the neutron and gamma radiation is halved again so down to 1/4.

Most cooling and storage facilities put a purified water cap over waste of between 6 to 8 metres in depth. So the radiation level falls to 1/36th or 1/64th. And no the water doesn't become radioactive at all, it's not nuclear homeopathy! The facilities are so safe people work without special clothing, have done so for decades, free of specific health issues, all they have to wear is a safety related dosimeter just in case they get exposed to something without the water cover. When you see the media coverage of people is special suits staring into a pit of Cherenkov glowing waste, the suit is done for TV not for any real protective reason, in fact the suit would be no protection at all compared to the water that is already there. Actually, standing above the storage / cooling facility pond you get less ambient radiation exposure than you would typically get standing outside on ground. The dirt under your feet is full of lightly radioactive particles and other stuff like radium gas which leaches out of the ground basically everywhere on earth.

Ironic, the place that activists want you to believe is deadly and contaminated is quite possibly delivering lower radiation doses than the local footy field! Humans are terrible as assessing risk, they are slaves to emotions and rumours. A person that is petrified of spiders, will tell you how they dread the thought of them while sucking on a smoke!