Red-Hot Nuclear-Waste Train Glows in Infrared, page 1

privacy

Pages:
ATS Members have flagged this thread 1 times

Topic started on 20-1-2011 @ 08:31 AM by Ophiuchus 13

I was just checking this out on natgeo. figured it was worth discussion. Do you feel there is a better way to transport these dangerous materials to prevent "SPILLS" seems they are a accident waiting to happen being that they are transported on civilian railways.

Railroad cars carrying some 123 tons of nuclear waste glow red-hot in an infrared picture taken in Valognes (map), France, in November and released by Greenpeace International as part of an antinuclear-power campaign that included arranging protests that delayed the train's progress.

The train is hauling a so-called CASTOR convoy, named after the type of container carried: Cask for Storage and Transport Of Radioactive material. These trademarked casks have been used since 1995 to transport nuclear waste from German power plants to France for reprocessing, then back to Germany for storage.

"High-level waste is in fact hot," said nuclear energy and proliferation expert Matthew Bunn. "It doesn’t mean anything in particular in terms of how dangerous it is."

news.nationalgeographic.com...
The train

Nuclear waste protesters! They are hanging there protesting the transport of such dangerous materials.

The material nuclear waste. I really think there is a way to drain power out of these heating waste materials.

Those are huge?!

Inferred view of train.

Anyone notice the red temps. on some of the bystanders? Maybe its normal reaction from being close to these materials.

So ATS members is there a better way to handle and clean these waste products or is this it? The risky wait for an accident to happen and then change or ways of dealing with these waste products.

Le me know. Again I think there is a way to get energy from those heated canisters.
PEACE....

edit on 1/20/11 by Ophiuchus 13 because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 08:39 AM by raceway40

Anyone notice the red temps. on some of the bystanders? Maybe its normal reaction from being close to these materials.

Really? Its called body temperature! Humans will show up on infrared camera since our bodies are usually hotter that our surroundings.

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 08:39 AM by watchitburn

Interesting post but

Anyone notice the red temps. on some of the bystanders? Maybe its normal reaction from being close to these materials

you are seeing their body heat

though I am sure that people who do this stuff have an increased cancer rate

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 08:46 AM by DAVID64

They are not "red hot", they are just warmer than the other things around them. Yes nuclear waste is very dangerous and I agree that it should be transported carefully. I think the problem is that, wherever they are taking it, the only way to get there is a public road or railway. Imagine the cost and problems involved if they were to build separate railways just to carry those cars. Billions would be wasted because they would not be used often. Those containers are VERY strong and are tested over and over under the most extreme conditions. I saw a documentary where they put one on a semi trailer, parked it on a crossing and hit it with the train at 60 mph. The container showed almost no damage and not the slightest sign of a leak.

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 08:48 AM by Ophiuchus 13

reply to post by raceway40

Yes I know lol It just seemed odd the temp of the waste were shown like the temp of human head.
Thanks

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 08:51 AM by Ophiuchus 13

Originally posted by watchitburn
though I am sure that people who do this stuff have an increased cancer rate

Its what I was getting at more seems pretty dangerous. To me these railroads should be fully automated from the filling of canisters to loading to transport (all robotic). And there should be a better interior lining of the carts as to prevent any radiation leak to bystanders who may just be waiting for train.

Thanks

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 09:01 AM by Ophiuchus 13

Originally posted by DAVID64
I think the problem is that, wherever they are taking it, the only way to get there is a public road or railway. Imagine the cost and problems involved if they were to build separate railways just to carry those cars. Billions would be wasted because they would not be used often.

I see your point as far as cost. But this can be a potentially dangerous accident involving civilian casualities. A few billion hear and there should be worth the risk. It can only help the environment and the inhabitants near these locations human or animals. MONEY is always a issue when it comes to saftey. But when $$ making ideas are spawned there is money from everywhere as long as it can be made back. Priority seems to be let it be as long as it doesnt make a mess and fix it when it does. I think there should be certain areas globally where these products are transported and handled and reprocessed. A while back I heard the US carries some of their powerfull nukes on trains that go above and below to keep them in constant transport preventing disaster.

Originally posted by DAVID64
Those containers are VERY strong and are tested over and over under the most extreme conditions. I saw a documentary where they put one on a semi trailer, parked it on a crossing and hit it with the train at 60 mph. The container showed almost no damage and not the slightest sign of a leak.

I seen the same exact presentation. Thing is would there have been the same result if say a puncher device was used moving at high speeds? I just feel they should be away from public totally. Use the heat from the waste to heat something else to heat something else to generate steam to spin a turbine or something like that.

Thanks for your input to the thread. ATS seems a little on the slow topic side of things so figured would add some data.

Peace

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 09:13 AM by Alchemst7

Either launch them to the sun or somewhere out in space, or dump them in a deep magma chamber and let the earth recycle what we took from her.

edit on 20-1-2011 by Alchemst7 because: add funny face. humor intended

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 09:53 AM by Ophiuchus 13

reply to post by Alchemst7

Those are some powerfull points. As a child when in school we had all the fossil fuel studies and recycle studies. I made a comment in the 4th grade to shoot the waste into the SUN my teacher said there is too much risk in there being an accident and the stuff falling back into Earths atmosphere. Its amazing you over 2 decades later you said the same thing

. I really think there is a way to harness more energy from these waste products if we look deeper and it may even clean them better the harnesing proccess..
Good point and thanks

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 09:56 AM by Ophiuchus 13

Another member made a thread on this topic already you can find it here.
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Mods can close if needed.

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 11:06 AM by Mr Tranny

You are getting thermal radiation and nuclear radiation confused with each other.

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

They have a thermal imaging camera.

en.wikipedia.org...

Thermal radiation is just the heat a hot body radiates to it’s surroundings. Take a propane torch and heat up a strip of metal, and it will show very brightly on a thermal cam even if it isn’t hot enough to glow red yet to the human eye.

All the camera pictures of the train are showing is that the canisters are hot as in a hot skillet on a stove, or a hot soldering iron. You won’t get cancer by being close to a hot skillet.

They do not indicate any leaking of nuclear radiation. In fact, if you had a Geiger counter, you probably wouldn’t notice anything much above normal background radiation when the train passes by.

That is because the casks are heavily shielded against nuclear radiation leakage. But they have to allow thermal heat to escape to stay at a safe temperature. That is because the nuclear radiation that the shielding absorbs is turned into heat that has to be dissipated.

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 11:11 AM by Ophiuchus 13

reply to post by Mr Tranny

Wow thank you for the informtive post. I was getting them mixed up my bad. It does makes sense that they have to allow a minimal amount of heat to be released which basically clarifies the temp. issues I thought I was seen being absorbed by civilians.

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 11:19 AM by Mr Tranny

“High-level waste is in fact hot," said nuclear energy and proliferation expert Matthew Bunn. "It doesn’t mean anything in particular in terms of how dangerous it is."

Hello captain obvious!

The only thing that is radioactive is his stupidity!!!!!!!
The stupidity burns man!!!!!! It Just burns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 11:28 AM by tetsuo

All this waste is expending a lot of energy, couldn't we at the very least use it to power an endothermic reaction of some sort?

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 11:30 AM by Ophiuchus 13

reply to post by Mr Tranny

yea that caught my eye as well

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 11:31 AM by Ophiuchus 13

reply to post by tetsuo

This is what I like too see a use for it as it seems to have extra energy that can be harnesed.

Thank you very much

edit on 1/20/11 by Ophiuchus 13 because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 02:23 PM by Mr Tranny

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
reply to post by tetsuo

This is what I like too see a use for it as it seems to have extra energy that can be harnesed.

Thank you very much
edit on 1/20/11 by Ophiuchus 13 because: (no reason given)

It could be used for that. The stuff will produce heat for decades and decades and decades. But the problem is it is not a very dense heat source. So it takes a large heat source to produce a usable amount of heat for things like home heating or the like, so it is just not economical.

Now if you set a cask under your house, you would never have to worry about home heating again. If you lived up north, that may be a dang good idea, but the idea doesn’t seam to go over to well with most people.

And with how stringent the regulatory agencies are, I doubt that they would leave a cask under the care of a normal home owner.

The best thing to do to use the power that is still in it is to reprocess it. which is what happens to a lot of it in other countries.

en.wikipedia.org...

Most of the uranium isn’t burnt when the fuel rods become unusable. They are contaminated with the decay products which poison the reaction to the point they no longer produce an economical amount of energy. Reprocessing removes the decay products and puts the unburnt fuel back into new pellets so that it can be burned again.

And there is other uses for radioactive stuff besides heat. You can use strontium 90 to power radioluminescent light sources. (self powered lighting)

en.wikipedia.org...

Strontium 90 is a common byproduct of nuclear power generation. Normally they use tritium because it will dissipate harmlessly into the air if the glass is broken. The only problem with a building that had a lot of strontium light sources is that if the building caught on fire, it would possibly release some of the strontium into the environment. All though, if you encapsulated the strontium in glass, with the phosphor, then even if the glass did melt, most of the strontium would stay in the glass mix.

reply posted on 20-1-2011 @ 02:30 PM by Ophiuchus 13

reply to post by Mr Tranny

Once again many praises for presenting possible ways to use this wasted energy. Now the cask below a home does spark some good energy points minus the potential danger of leak and a family being contaminated. Maybe place a couple cask in one location and direct the heat from the safe location to homes. It would require a special hvac unit under and above ground that would transfer and enhance the heat being sent.

Thanks for the input

Pages: ^^TOP^^