https://longnow.org/ideas/02022/06/01/deep-time-underground/
"HELSINKI, Finland, 02013. I sipped black coffee under the fluorescent office
lights of the VTT Technical Research Centre, Finland’s largest state-owned
research and technology non-profit company. Chatting with me was Risto, a
soft-spoken systems analyst in his forties. Risto’s job was to develop computer
models of how, whether, and where radionuclides could potentially travel
underground in the distant future, in the event that a copper canister buried
at a nuclear waste repository in Western Finland someday ruptures.
A radionuclide is an element with an unstable nucleus. It emits radiation as it
breaks down, undergoing a process called radioactive decay. Certain kinds of
radionuclides — if inhaled or ingested in significant amounts — can still pose
health risks to humans and other lifeforms tens or even hundreds of thousands
of years in the future.
Risto was working on what, in the mid-02020s, will likely become the world’s
first operational deep geologic repository for used-up — or “spent” — nuclear
fuel. Spent fuel is a byproduct of nuclear power reactors: an emissions-free
energy source that many see as crucial in the fight against climate change.
Roughly 263,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel have piled up — usually in temporary
cooling pools or concrete casks — in storage facilities on or near the surface
of the Earth. Risto’s mission was to secure Finland’s 2300 tons of spent fuel
deep underground, where it will be less vulnerable to future natural disasters,
wars, neglect, sabotage, weaponization, or leaks."
Via Bill Daul.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
