Mike-Ward.Net

Radioactive Decay Decrease May Reduce Nuclear Waste

I don’t know about you, but with all the talk of global warming it seems likely that we will be generating more of our power from alternative sources and nuclear seems the only short-term answer at the moment.

“PhysicsWeb is reporting that German scientists may have found a way to significantly reduce the radioactive decay time of nuclear waste. This could render the waste harmless in just tens of years and make disposal much less difficult as opposed to current standards. From the article: ‘Their proposed technique - which involves slashing the half-life of an alpha emitter by embedding it in a metal and cooling the metal to a few degrees kelvin - could therefore avoid the need to bury nuclear waste in deep repositories, a hugely expensive and politically difficult process. But other researchers are skeptical and believe that the technique contradicts well-established theory as well as experiment.’”