Re: A real solution

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

	If number of cancer doses is the index used, the time after which
these are equal to the uranium originally mined is 15,000 years for
reprocessed high level waste and 120,000 years for spent fuel. This is for
ingestion. If radon effects are taken into account, mining uranium out of
the ground is a great life saving activity, saving hundreds of lives per
GWe-year whereas buried waste kills far less than one. All of this is
based on linear-no threshold theory and probabilistic risk assessment.

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


On Fri, 18 Aug 2000, Bob Flood wrote:

> >I am curious, though, about the composition of spent fuel (not my
> >field).  What are the shorter half-life isotopes of concern (say those
> >that will be mostly gone within 300 years) vs. the very-long half-live
> >ones, and their relative proportions?
> 
> 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 not tested this assertion and haven't seen any other
> calculations of this sort. Can anyone confirm or deny this claim? Might
> there be a reference on this?
> ============================
> Bob Flood
> Dosimetry Group Leader
> Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
> bflood@slac.stanford.edu
> 
> 
> ************************************************************************
> The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
> 

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html