[ot] Re: The Year 2038 Problem

From: jpd (read_the_sig_at_do.not.spam.it)
Date: 06/02/04 

Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 06:14:03 +0000 (UTC)

On 2004-06-01, Robert W. McAdams <rwm@fambright.com> wrote:
> Jens.Toerring@physik.fu-berlin.de wrote in message
> news:<2hrgvfFd8qnpU1@uni-berlin.de>...
[snip]
> Actually , the issue is not CONCENTRATION, but RADIOACTIVITY. Nuclear
> waste is, initially, much more radioactive than the uranium ore that
> was mined to produce the nuclear fuel that, in turn, produced the
> waste. But the most radioactive isotopes contained in the waste also
> have short half-lives. The result is that if you can isolate the
> waste from the biosphere for 1,000-10,000 years (depending on the type
> of waste), at the end of that time it is less radioactive than the
> uranium ore that was mined to produce it. (This is in sharp contrast
> to, e.g., the toxic chemical wastes produced by coal combustion, which
> never decay.)
>
> Technologies already exist for isolating nuclear wastes from the
> biosphere for that period of time. (In fact, the best of these
> technologies utilizes a layered approach, in which a number of
> isolation techniques are used together, each of which, by itself, is
> capable of isolating the waste from the biosphere for substantially
> more than 10,000 years.)

Which is all peachy, but ehrm. I still see two[1] problems: First; It,
to me, has too much of a /because we can/ attitude if we're to use
nuclear fuels for, how long? a few months? a couple of years, tops? then
have to sit on it for 1000-10000 years to make sure the debris of our
sitcom watching doesn't kill anyone. Even if you can use the stuff for
10 years then have to nanny everyone else to stay away for just 1000
years, there's still this 1:100 discrepancy.

Second, if you want to fool yourself you can forget about the cost of
sitting on something that you'd rather not touch (or have anyone else
touch) for a couple of aeons. However, nature will still present the
bill. The curses of our children are just extra.

Like the ads from all sorts of shady loansharks that one should really
indebt oneself just for buying a widescreen colour tv. Where, if you do,
you `buy money' but not to invest to make more money, no, just to spend
it and sit on your lazy ass and watch. That, in the end, doesn't buy
you anything. Except maybe the debts that still have to be paid off but
you still don't have the means for generating the money needed. I don't
watch tv, nevermind widescreen tv. Lucky me.

IFF we're going to use nuclear fuels, we'd better do something darn
useful with it, instead of getting comparatively small returns from
rather big waste-guarding commitments we can't fulfull in our own
lifetime.

[1] Many, in fact. I'll point out just two here. 

-- 
  j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .

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