[NukeNet] Need Arguments Against Vitrification and Transmutation

[Mary Olson]

Mike -- I am doing a reply-to-all --- perhaps others will chime in. I am 
going to keep this short --
First, the ONLY place that vitrification makes sense is with liquid 
high-level wastes. Vitrification is a process of using a glass matrix to 
embed the radioactivity that is essentially the residue from boiling off 
the liquid portion of these terrible warlock brews! Boiling off -- yes, 
bad idea -- but leaving liquid high-level waste that is corrosive in 
metal tanks -- worse idea.

Yes, you are right -- there was a lot of criticism of the vit processes 
in the 1990's... but that apparently had impact on the techie side of 
this waste problem and some of the form critics became advocates -- 
especially when it came to the plutonium from dismantled nuclear 
warheads -- the idea there was to put the Pu in ceramic form, in 
containers that were in a rack and then pour the glass log around it. 
The highly radioactive glass would provide a "theft barrier" -- though 
these days with suicide bombers I wonder how anyone can think that a 
lethal dose of radiation IS a barrier... but details! ALL of it was 
better than the other idea for the Pu which was to make mixed-oxide 
(plutonium and uranium) reactor fuel (MOX) and double the consequences 
(cancer deaths) from a major reactor accident...

SO you are right -- doing a glass log with any other type of waste is 
not very useful -- especially irradiated fuel -- it is already a ceramic 
that is, itself, highly radioactive and "clad" in metal.

AS for transmutation -- there are a bunch of weird pie-in-the-sky 
proposals coming from folks who feel that DOE has not adequately 
addressed their inventions -- and I am not qualified to to speak to 
those. The mainstream transmutation agenda is that if pure plutonium is 
made into fuel and fissioned, you get rid of it -- never mind that you 
do also form americium and neptumim and other fissile elements - -but 
they are all mixed up with massive fission products... so for those who 
labor under the idea that PLUTONIUM is the ONLY THING "wrong" with 
radioactive waste from commercial reactors -- this sounds pretty good. 
For those of us concerned about health -- both human and environmental - 
we see a massive increase in the Curie count -- and know that if 
something is hazardous for say 300 years -- that is plenty to alter the 
course of the genetic treasury of the planet... so yes, plutonium 
triggers the terrible risk of an insane human being / human institution 
wiring it up and "pressing the button" -- but barring that event, 
fission products (what you get from mainstreatm transmutation is massive 
cesium, strontium, iodine, etc) are NOT better -- they are worse in 
terms of potential disruption of healthy tissue and integrity of DNA.

Hope this helps -=- see www.ieer.org for lots more details on both of 
these concepts!

Mary Olson
NIRS Southeast


Mike Ewall wrote:
> NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet at energyjustice.net)
>
>
> Does someone have good arguments written up about why nuclear waste 
> vitrification and/or transmutation are not good ideas?
>
> I recall hearing about failed vitrification experiments at West 
> Valley, NY... something about the glass logs cracking?  Also, it 
> seems that vitrification only contaminates more materials, increasing 
> the volume.  I understand that some are promoting vitrification for 
> plutonium-containing waste, as a counter-proliferation strategy.  Is 
> there any reason to promote it for nuclear waste in general?  I know 
> some who ARE promoting that, and it seems like a really bad idea, but 
> I could use details.
>
> I know little about transmutation, but doesn't that also require a 
> chemical process to separate isotopes before trying to transmute 
> them?  Wouldn't this also ultimately increase the volume of toxic and 
> radioactive wastes?
>
> Mike
>
>
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