Re: A real solution

[Michael McNaughton <mcnaught@lanl.gov>]

At 02:54 PM 8/18/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Some years ago I was told by someone whose opinions I respect that the
>oft-used 10,000 year worry period is way off and that spent fuel will decay
>to being no more radioactive than the original unirradiated fuel in about
>300 years. 

I have seen this presented as a graph, but with essentially no
justification, no references, and no technical details. The graph is
"ingestion toxicity" versus time; Pu is assigned a low ingestion toxicity
because it is insoluble. After almost 1000 years, the total ingestion
toxicity of the high-level waste from a LWR is shown as less than the total
ingestion toxicity of the original uranium ore used to make that fuel. Many
years ago I tried and failed to find the origin of the graph so I could
check the details.

mike

Mike McNaughton
email: mcnaught@LANL.gov or mcnaughton@LANL.gov
phone: (505)667-6130
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