What are the pros and cons of vitrification of nuclear waste?
The question says all - Thanks in advance! :)
Encasing nuclear waste in glass substantially reduces gamma ray emissions.
What is a Vitrification plant?
Just need to know more about it for a paper I am writing.
Vitrification is a process of converting a material into a glass-like amorphous solid that is free from any crystalline structure, either by the quick removal or addition of heat, or by mixing with an additive.
Solidification of a vitreous solid occurs at the glass transition temperature (which is lower than melting temperature, Tm, due to supercooling).
click on the links below to learn more =
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitrificati on
http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/vitrif ication.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/vitrificati on
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entr y/Vitrification
http://www2.euronuclear.org/info/encyclo pedia/v/virification-plant-karlsruhe.htm
The following link talks about it in connection with radioactive waste - click on the link and then scroll down till you get the word Vitrification =
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive _waste
more =
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8& amp;fr=ks-ans&p=vitrification+proces s&rs=0&fr2=rs-bottom
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8& amp;fr=ks-ans&p=vitrification+plant& amp;rs=1&fr2=rs-bottom
Thank you !
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the following 2 ways of dealing with high-level nuclear waste?
1. Reprocessing and vitrification
2. Treating whole fuel assemblies as waste
1. Expensive. working with high level waste is a more dangerous tactic, so more money has to be spent in safety, and radiation protection. I'm not saying people die doing it, because they don't. I'm just saying that it complicates the cycle.
2. Handling and storing everything is simple and standardized. There is less risk because bundles are never opened and bare fuel is never exposed (intentionally). Eventually it may become economic to produce thorium 'burning' reactors, in which case the spent fuel canjust be inserted back into the reactor and burned some more. By keeping everything intact it just makes things simpler. Simple is safe, and less expensive. Why complicate things when you don't have to?
oocyte vitrification
Oocytes from vitrified method seem to be as beneficial as fresh ...
Egg donation is now predicted to be easier and safer. An investigator from the Institut Universitari – IVI Valencia, Valencia, Spain claimed that the embryos achieved from oocytes (eggs) cryopreserved by the vitrification method are able to produce an on-going pregnancy rate similar to those derived from fresh oocytes. The analysis seems to enormously affect the practice of egg-banking in the near future.
The authors enlightened that this method will help a significant amount of people. There are cancer patients with the capacity of preserving their fertility before undergoing treatment that may make them sterile. Also there are patients with a heightened risk for ovarian hyperstimulation and cases wherein a semen sample is not immediately available.
Dr. Ana Cobo, Cryobiology Unit director at Institut Universitari – IVI Valencia, Valencia, Spain, explained, “Because we were able to show that there were no differences between the two groups before embryo implantation. We can be certain that the on-going pregnancy rates in both groups were not influenced by any factor other than the method of oocyte preservation. Although there has been considerable circumstantial evidence that cryopreservation by the vitrification method produces results as good as those with freshly-harvested oocytes, until this trial there was still a lack of large randomly-controlled studies in the field.”
A randomized clinical trail including 600 recipients was conducted by the authors. All these recipients were freshly-harvested oocytes or those preserved by the vitrification method. During this method the oocytes are apparently flash-frozen after the extraction of water to avoid them from forming into ice.
The outcome was that 43.7% of women in the on-going pregnancy rate acquired vitrified oocytes while the fresh oocyte group displayed 41.7%. While both the groups revealed identical proportion of top-quality embryos, no difference in age or other demographic characteristics was noted. Also similar incidence of male factor infertility was appeared.
...Vitrification - News
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Board denies DOE access to vit plant probe RICHLAND — The Department of Energy will not be given confidential investigative files related to the safety culture of the Hanford vitrification plant, said Chairman Peter Winokur of the Defense Nuclear Facilities HANFORD: DOE agrees to safety board recommendations, but questions findingsall 13 news articles » |
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Understanding Cryonics - Part 2 - Vitrification & Storage Understanding Cryonics - Part 2 - Vitrification & StorageNow, on to vitrification. The term vitrification means many things to many different schools of science (I know, I Googled it.) For the purposes of cryonics, vitrification means simply the process of preparing a subject to withstand temperatures as low |
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Vitrified Forts There are some things in archaeology that fascinate me for no really logical reason: Vitrified forts are one of them. Vitrified Fort at Dunnideer Scotland. Photo by Stu Smith Vitrified forts are Iron Age |
Rebar Curtain Added at Hanford Pretreatment Facility
The $12.2 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), also known as the “Vit Plant,” will immobilize the radioactive liquid waste currently stored in 177 underground tanks using a process called “vitrification.
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Making the Grade With Mechanical Media Also, by changing the ratio of these binder sub-components to one another, the media manufacturer can alter the kiln-firing, vitrification temperature, and consequently the media's attrition rate. In general, the higher the vitrification temperature |
Cryonics Directory
Vitrification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vitrification (from Latin vitreum, "glass" via French vitrifier) is the transformation of ... Vitrification is characteristic for amorphous materials or disordered ...
Vitrification - New World Encyclopedia
A vitrification experiment for the study of nuclear waste disposal at ... Vitrification is a process of converting a material into a glass-like amorphous solid ...
Radioactive waste - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A vitrification experiment for the study of nuclear waste disposal ... Bulk vitrification uses electrodes to melt soil and wastes, which are then ...
vitrify: Definition from Answers.com
Vitrification (from Latin vitreum, "glass" via French vitrifier) is the transformation of ... Bulk vitrification uses electrodes to melt soil and wastes where they lay buried. ...