Radioactive Wolves.

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Warren Dew
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Warren Dew » Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:52 pm

Svartalf wrote:Of course, it might be interesting to reuse already irradiated material from old stations into the building of new ones... might save on costs, and delay having to find a resting home for those tons of stuff for 30 or 50 years.
Probably the best way to reuse irradiated material would be simply to extend the lifetimes of existing plants as much as possible.

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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Thu Nov 10, 2011 9:55 pm

So, if there's a breakthrough in fusion and it becomes practical, what happens to the fission plants?
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by JimC » Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:12 pm

Gawdzilla wrote:So, if there's a breakthrough in fusion and it becomes practical, what happens to the fission plants?
Glow in the dark amusement parks for real thrillseekers? :dunno:
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!

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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:17 pm

JimC wrote:
Gawdzilla wrote:So, if there's a breakthrough in fusion and it becomes practical, what happens to the fission plants?
Glow in the dark amusement parks for real thrillseekers? :dunno:
We'd all look like tree frogs. :shock:
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Schneibster » Fri Nov 11, 2011 1:13 am

Warren Dew wrote:
Svartalf wrote:Of course, it might be interesting to reuse already irradiated material from old stations into the building of new ones... might save on costs, and delay having to find a resting home for those tons of stuff for 30 or 50 years.
Probably the best way to reuse irradiated material would be simply to extend the lifetimes of existing plants as much as possible.
Changing the chemical composition of metal weakens it.
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by MiM » Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:42 pm

Gawdzilla wrote:So, if there's a breakthrough in fusion and it becomes practical, what happens to the fission plants?
Because of their comparably low running costs, they would continue at least through their designed lifetime, unless the fusion breakthrough would be astonishing enough to provide really cheap fusion power.
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by MiM » Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:45 pm

Schneibster wrote:
Warren Dew wrote:
Svartalf wrote:Of course, it might be interesting to reuse already irradiated material from old stations into the building of new ones... might save on costs, and delay having to find a resting home for those tons of stuff for 30 or 50 years.
Probably the best way to reuse irradiated material would be simply to extend the lifetimes of existing plants as much as possible.
Changing the chemical composition of metal weakens it.
Yes, and in addition older designs are inherently less safe (as we saw in Fukushima). Many countries lack good programs for adding novel safety practices to old plants.
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Schneibster » Fri Nov 11, 2011 9:25 pm

Not to mention conservative fiscal policies make it seem attractive to avoid looking at it. As do greedy ones. Not that they aren't generally one and the same.
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Warren Dew » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:33 pm

Schneibster wrote:Changing the chemical composition of metal weakens it.
So? Irradiation doesn't significantly change the chemical composition of anything.

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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Warren Dew » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:34 pm

Gawdzilla wrote:So, if there's a breakthrough in fusion and it becomes practical, what happens to the fission plants?
Same thing that happened to coal plants when nuclear plants became practical?

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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Schneibster » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:35 pm

Warren Dew wrote:
Schneibster wrote:Changing the chemical composition of metal weakens it.
So? Irradiation doesn't significantly change the chemical composition of anything.
Have you ever heard of neutrons? Duh.

ETA:
it is found that although mechanical properties are substantially degraded, several Ti alloys may retain acceptable properties to low or moderate doses.
Source.
Last edited by Schneibster on Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:38 pm

Warren Dew wrote:
Gawdzilla wrote:So, if there's a breakthrough in fusion and it becomes practical, what happens to the fission plants?
Same thing that happened to coal plants when nuclear plants became practical?
Hopefully the fission plants will make them obsolete. Fusion plants didn't. I would love to stop seeing coal trains with 140+ box cars rumble past our house. It's the majority of rail traffic around here, heading for the St. Louis power plant.
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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Warren Dew » Sat Nov 12, 2011 1:38 am

Schneibster wrote:
Warren Dew wrote:
Schneibster wrote:Changing the chemical composition of metal weakens it.
So? Irradiation doesn't significantly change the chemical composition of anything.
Have you ever heard of neutrons?
Add a neutron to something and you get a different isotope of the same element. There's no chemical change.
Schneibster wrote:
it is found that although mechanical properties are substantially degraded, several Ti alloys may retain acceptable properties to low or moderate doses.
Source.
Which has zilch to do with chemistry. Maybe you need to look up "chemistry"?

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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Warren Dew » Sat Nov 12, 2011 1:43 am

Gawdzilla wrote:Hopefully the fission plants will make them obsolete. Fusion plants didn't. I would love to stop seeing coal trains with 140+ box cars rumble past our house. It's the majority of rail traffic around here, heading for the St. Louis power plant.
Did you accidentally exchange "fission" and "fusion"? Fission plants have been around for half a century, and coal plants are still around. I doubt that fusion plants would have any different an effect.

Can't shut down the coal plants, it would put the poor unionized coal miners at high risk of black lung out of work!

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Re: Radioactive Wolves.

Post by Schneibster » Sat Nov 12, 2011 1:46 am

Warren Dew wrote:
Schneibster wrote:
Warren Dew wrote:
Schneibster wrote:Changing the chemical composition of metal weakens it.
So? Irradiation doesn't significantly change the chemical composition of anything.
Have you ever heard of neutrons?
Add a neutron to something and you get a different isotope of the same element. There's no chemical change.
After the radionuclide you've just created decays. Which happens in days to weeks for most radionuclides.

Duh.
Warren Dew wrote:
Schneibster wrote:
it is found that although mechanical properties are substantially degraded, several Ti alloys may retain acceptable properties to low or moderate doses.
Source.
Which has zilch to do with chemistry. Maybe you need to look up "chemistry"?
Are you serious? Did you just say the Oak Ridge National Laboratory doesn't know any chemistry?

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