Does nuclear power last forever

Answer 1

1. Until we run out of Uranium-235, unless...
2. If we use fast breeder reactors, until we run out of Uranium ore, unless...
3. If we can make fusion reactors, probably longer than our species will remain.

Answer 2

There are two basic different forms of nuclear waste. Each has its own criteria for storage, and these illustrate how long it lasts.

Low level waste is not particularly radioactive and may not last very long as waste. An example is tritiated water, which can be considered nuclear waste at fairly low levels of radioactivity. In this form, it can be stored while the tritium decays into stable helium. Natural tritium is replenished by cosmic rays as quickly as it decays. In storage, however, it is not replenished, and in a few centuries, the water that had been nuclear waste will have less tritium, and be less radioactive, than water found in nature. There are other forms of low level waste, but their characteristics are in large degree similar.

For spent fuel and similar high level waste, however, the answer is different. I have heard many people talk of this, usually citing such numbers as the half life of some isotope. Such a number is not useful. A more accurate and understandable figure can be based on a criterion put into use by nuclear scientists in Europe, which is that waste may be considered safe when it has decayed to the point that it is no more radioactive than naturally occurring uranium ore. According to this criterion, spent fuel is safe in about 6,000,000 years.

Answer 3

it depends on how many atoms there are! A2, no, it doesn't, however many atoms there are the radiation decays at the same rate. This rate depends on the particular isotope in question, there is not much of a pattern and you just have to look up the details for the isotopes concerned. The rate of decay for any one isotope is constant and is called the half life, which is obviously the time taken to decay to one half of the initial number of atoms. This type of decay is called exponential. The half life can be anything from seconds to thousands of years.

I think what you are getting to isto the half life of Plutonium atoms which is used in nuclear fission. In that case, here are some facts: The longest-lived are plutonium-244, with a half-life of 80.8 million years, plutonium-242, with a half-life of 373,300 years, and plutonium-239, with a half-life of 24,110 years. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 7,000 years. This element also has eight Meta_state, though none are stable and all have half-lives less than one second.

To make the story short, radiation content after exposure to a nuclear explosion can have long lasting consequences.

Answer 4

Nuclear power does not last forever. A nuclear power plant in a large ship last approx. 25 years.