Quote:
Originally Posted by HOZ
A very pressing question.
- The rate of decay of a radioactive isotope is called its half-life, the time in which half the initial amount of atoms present takes to decay. The half-life of Plutonium-239, one particularly lethal component of nuclear waste, is 24,000 years.
- The hazardous life of a radioactive element (the length of time that must elapse before the material is considered safe) is at least 10 half-lives. Therefore, Plutonium-239 will remain hazardous for at least 240,000 years.
|
What they arent telling you is that the original mined isotope is unsafe to being with. Untreated the material returns to its normal level of safeness in about 10,000 years. Once treated that number is brought down to below 1000 years (I forget the exact number, looking for a source).
Also other plants such as coal produce significant amounts of radioactive material in themselves. The radioactive material from these plants is much harder to contain.