Value of old Magnesium blocks just went up

[svandamme]

so how do they get the depleted uranium to be non radio active?
i've understood that it's zero yield when it get's to rounds ( i hope so , cause i'de hate to see the recipients gather them up and use em for enrichement again)

and why isn't that method a solution for the radioactive waste?

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

I'm pretty sure the depleted uranium is still slightly radio-active. I think they are blaming increased cancer rates in Iraq to the use of that material in the past...

-Wayne

but the military insists it's 100% safe and aparantly low enough in radioative radiation to be handled without any protective gear

which waste from a nuke plant, is not

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by svandamme

but the military insists it's 100% safe and aparantly low enough in radioative radiation to be handled without any protective gear

That's what they told those poor bastards they put on those ships after a blast in the 1950's with no protective gear.

The exciting thing about the MAGIC engine is that it introduces competition to the market, the first time since the demise of the steam and electric motor cars.

Just watch oil prices drop like a brick striving to hedge it out of the market before it gains a foothold. No conspiracy theories, just open/free market greed at work.

[SlowToady]

Don't they have something called Fast Breed Reactors that depletes the uranium even more after the conventional nuclear process is though, rendering them useless for nuclear weapons?

I thought I heard something about that, some time, some where, but it might just be wishful thinking...Many944s/SammyG care to educate me on Fast Breed Reactors and how they play out with regards to nuclear energy?

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

I'm pretty sure the depleted uranium is still slightly radio-active. I think they are blaming increased cancer rates in Iraq to the use of that material in the past...

-Wayne

Projections go up to a million people not counting the tens of thousands of birth defected miscarriages already reported.

[sammyg2]

Depleted uranium is mostly U238 (atomic weight, about 99.75% pure). it is very stable and not radioactive in pure form. (EDIT, pure U238 could emit alpha particles but not neutrons, so technically it is radioactive but not like the bad stuff). It is also the most common form of uranium in nature.
U235 is very radioactive and is what is used for power and things that go boom.
Nuclear generating stations use a mixture of U235 and U238.
The U238 is there to slow and control the reaction, kind of like a buffer. If they has pure or near pure U235 it would be too unstable and hard to control and not go boom.

A breeder reactor takes U238 and turns it into U235 or plutonium or whatever depnding on it's design and fuel.
I don't think they can take U235 and turn it into U238 (depleted) unless they have a lot of patience. The half life is measured in thousands of years.
I don't know of any type of reactor that can quickly decay the U235 into U238. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it just means I'm not aware of it.

What they have to do is refine the metal seperating the U238 from the U235. If they get the U238 pure enough it will have no radioactivity at all but it's really not possible to do that 100%. There's always a little tiny bit of radioactivity left but they can get it down to where it's lower than natural background radiation levels.

In Iran they are working to install hundreds or thousands of centrifuges.
They take the uranium and turn it into a gas, can't remember zackly what it is. Maybe uranium dioxide or something.
Then they run the gas through the centrifuges. The heavier gas (U238) is seperated from the lighter gas. It isn't very efficient so they have to centrifuge it a whole bunch of times. A really whole bunch.
Then after they have a high enough purity, they turn it back into a solid and can use it in a reactor. Or.... they can keep centrifuging it until the purity gets really high, and they can make things go boom.

[Zeke]

Awrite,we jus' got inna discussion about energy from some idear about burning mag as fuel. I don't mind "nuclar" energy myself, but I hate it that they bury the waste. I wonder how much energy it would take to send the stuff on a slow rocket to the sun to be consumed in an instant.

People talk about dirtying up space, yet we dirty up our planet badly. There's a whole lot more "space" than planet. call me irresponsible, but I'd send stuff far away before anihalating the human race.

[futuresoptions]

When my 2.7 bites the bullet, I am going to cut it up and use it to make those survival fire starters out of. The ones where you shave off a little magnesium and then have a flint to set it off....... Think I paid $10. for my last one, so I should have a life time supply sitting out in the carport......

[SlowToady]

The problem with sending it into space is the orbits that the trash takes on. There are concerns, even now, that with the amount of trash in space, satellites and other space-thingies will be hit.

Originally Posted by milt

Awrite,we jus' got inna discussion about energy from some idear about burning mag as fuel. I don't mind "nuclar" energy myself, but I hate it that they bury the waste. I wonder how much energy it would take to send the stuff on a slow rocket to the sun to be consumed in an instant.

People talk about dirtying up space, yet we dirty up our planet badly. There's a whole lot more "space" than planet. call me irresponsible, but I'd send stuff far away before anihalating the human race.