[TheForge] Hellooooooo!

[wmullett at bright.net]

Medical waste is NOT the problem.  

"Reactor waste remains hazardous for a very long time. Most medical waste from treatment and diagnosis is hazardous for a very short time. Research and industrial waste can contain small amounts of some long-lived radioactive materials.

Among the radioactive elements commonly found in nuclear reactor "low-level" waste are: Tritium, with a half-life of 12 years and a hazardous life of 120-240 years; Iodine-131, half-life of 8 days, hazardous life of 80-160 days; Strontium-90, half life of 28 years, hazardous life of 280-560 years; Nickel-59, half life of 76,000 years, hazardous life of 760,000-1,520,000 years, and Iodine-129, half-life of sixteen million years, hazardous life of160-320 million years.

By contrast, common medical waste elements include Technetium-99m, with a half-life of 6 hours and a hazardous life of 2.5-5 days; Galium-67, half-life of 78 hours and hazardous life of 1-2 months; and Iodine-131, with its half-life of 8 days and hazardous life of 80-160 days.

The vast majority of medical waste is hazardous for less than 8 months. Yet, it is in the same category as reactor waste that will be hazardous for hundreds of thousands to millions of years.

Clearly, the definition of "low-level radioactive waste" must be changed. It would make sense to redefine the more concentrated and/or longer-lived waste as high-level. Active recontainerization and operational control must be provided for the entire hazardous life of the waste, yet the NRC requires only 100 years of passive institutional control. Thus, waste hazardous longer than 100 years could be forgotten. Retrievability is essential. "


From: "Chris Kilpatrick" <crimsonkil at lycos.com>
Date: Mon May 8, 10:52 AM
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Hellooooooo!

> 	It would be challenged, and rightly so.  Nuclear is not a good 
> long term solution, methinks.  The wastes are just too nasty.


If you want to get rid of 94% of all nuclear waste in this country, stop the medical community from using nuclear medicine.  

It is I who formed the blacksmith, 
who fans the flame into a fire and
fashions a weapon fit for it's work.


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