Re: Nuclear waste needs a home . . . someplace

["Zack Clayton" <zack.clayton@epa.state.oh.us>]

Tom, 

It is a common oversight.  SNF is not just concentrated Uranium.  Its not even decay daughters.  The problem with SNF is the relatively large amount of fission products in the fuel pellets.  Some of these are very soluble, some are hazardous chemically, some are reactive, most have short half lives (herein lies the  radiation problem).  So while you could probably make a case for putting the purified dispersed U back in the mine,  if you've gotten to that point with SNF you should probably reform it into pellets and (horror of horrors) recycle it back into a reactor.  

Geologically, mines and quarries are poor places to put thinks because the rock is usually fractured pretty badly by the mining process.

Zack Clayton
Ohio EPA - DERR
email:  zack.clayton@epa.state.oh.us
voice:  614-644-3066
fax:        614-460-8249

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