In reply to Jones Beene's message of Sun, 05 Aug 2007 11:54:42 -0700: Hi Jones, [snip] >Hey, sports fans -- that is actually FAR more energy per molecule than >burning gasoline in air (since you have all that nitrogen which doesn't >contribute). What am I missing here? [other than greed] [snip] Much of the energy in the rad waste is lost in the form of alpha particles, and these have a very short range in solid matter. That means that most of them lose their energy in the form of heat in the crystal lattice without coming anywhere near an oxygen molecule. The situation is somewhat better for beta radiation, and much better for gamma radiation, but the latter 2 are usually only a small part of the total. You might have better luck dissolving all the rad waste in solution, and collecting the radiolysis products, though radiolysis normally also tends to be a rather inefficient process (5 %?)...still, 5% may be better than 0%, depending on the cost of the facility per unit energy retrieved. Regards,
Robin van Spaandonk The shrub is a plant.
