Nuclear Waste Management Essay -- essays research papers

Nuclear Waste ManagementNuclear energy harnesses the energy released during the splitting orfusing of atomic nuclei. This heat energy is most often used to convert waterto steam, turning turbines, and generating electricity.However, nuclear energy also has many disadvantages. An event that demo this was the terrible incident at Chernobyl. Here on April 26,1986, one of the nuclear reactors of a nuclear power plant went out of control andcaused the worlds worst known reactor disaster to date. An experiment that wasnot properly supervised was conducted with the water-cooling system turned off.This led to the uncontrolled reaction, which in turn caused a steam explosion.The reactors protective cover version was blown off, and approximately 100 millioncuries of radionuclides were released into the atmosphere. Some of theradiation spread across northern Europe and into Great Britain. Sovietstatements indicated that 31 people died because of the accident, precisely the numberof radiation -caused deaths is still unknown.The same deadly radiation that was present in this explosion is alsopresent in spent fuels. This presents special problems in the handling, storage,and garbage disposal of the depleted uranium. When nuclear fuel is first loaded into areactor, 238U and 235U are present. When in the reactor, the 235U is graduallydepleted and gives rise to fission products, generally, cesium (137Cs) andstrontium (90Sr). These waste material materials are very unstable and have to undergoradioactive disintegration before they can be transformed into stable isotopes.Each radioactive isotope in this waste material decays at its characteristicrate. A half-life can be less than a second or can be thousands of eld long.The isotopes also emit characteristic radiation it can be electromagnetic (X-ray or gamma radiation) or it can consist of particles (alpha, beta, or neutronradiation).photo to large doses of ionizing radiation causes characteristicpatterns of injury. Doses ar e measured in rads (1 rad is equal to an amount ofradiation that releases 100 ergs of energy per gram of matter). Doses of morethan 4000 rads soberly damage the human vascular system, causing cerebral edema(excess fluid), which leads to extreme shock and neurological disturba... ...relatively low in cost compared to storage in a pool of water andcan be moved around if necessary. Another way to dispose of radioactive wastesis through geologic isolation. This is the disposal of wastes deep inside thecrust of the earth. This form of disposal is attractive because it appears thatwastes can be safely isolated from the biosphere for thousands of years orlonger. Disposal in mined vaults does not demand the use of advancedtechnologies, rather the application of what we know today. It is possible tolocate mineral, rock, or other bodies beneath the surface of the earth that leave behindnot be subject to groundwater intrusion. A preferred place would be at least1,500 feet below the earths crust, so that it may avoid erosion for thespecified period of time. no(prenominal) of the preceding methods offers a completesolution to the problem of nuclear waste. They only bury it, temporarilyshoving it out of our current view for a latter extension to solve. Maybe thefuture inhabitants of this world will find a solution to this problem, for as wechose to continue the use of nuclear power, more and more waste will beaccumulated, emitting deadly radiation long after we pass away.