The end of problems with radioactive waste

[GOD]

I`ve just been watching a program on TV about new quantum physics where they were using a laser that releases extreme shortwave pulses where each pulse has the same power/energy as 25,000 atomic powerstations . They were shooting out high energy photons and putting a spin on them . The photons hit electrons and transfered the spin to the electron thereby changing the spin charge of the electron . This happens at the speed of the movements of the electrons around an atom . They said that electrons circle an atom in time segments that when compaired to a second would be equal to one second compaired to the age of the universe = 13 - 15 billion years . They were talking about using this effect to transfer information in computer chips and store information on a HDD at the same speeds . This would mean that computer chips and HDDs would be able to be made extremely small and that they would produce no heat because the information was not being transfered by flowing electricity but by the spin charge of the electrons .

They were also bombarding radioactive elements with high energy photons and knocking off an electron thereby neutralising / destroying the radioactivity . So that instead of it being radioactive for 3.5 million years it was only radioactive for 25 seconds . They did it with lots of different radioactive substances but they said they hadnt tried it with all known radioactive substances . If it works with all of them it will mean that they can neutralise / transmutate all the worlds radioactive waste into harmless substances .

The last thing that they said is that they had proved that nothing is real unless it is being observed .


I`m buisy waiting for the programm to be repeated a few times and when it is i will tell you more facts and explain more effects . Maybe i explained what i heard confusingly , if i did please explain what doesnt make sense . Does anyone know any more about it or can anyone explain better please .

 

[Meduzz]

Can you mention the source of the article?
How does a change in electron configuration neutralise radioactivity?

 

[GOD]

I dont know , i just watched a programm and that is what it was about . I will keep my eyes and ears open and watch the program again if i can find it .

What is radiation ? , maybe if you can explain that to me i can remember more of what they said and tell you . I`m going to have a look through my dustbin , maybe i can find the name of the TV program .

 

[druglessdouglas]

the first part i asumes involves the up/down spin of paired electrons. i also asume the spin would be given a value, say up =1, down=0. by measuring the spin of one electron you would automaticaly know the spin of the other was in the other direction. because a spining electron produces a minute magnetic field rather like the earth does the spin can be measured using superconducting electro magnets- magnets with a very precice known magnetic quality and field strengh. the spining electron's magnetic field would interract with that produced by the superconductor magnet causing a minute but measurable induction current in [the superconductor] its turnings, rather like a dynamo. just a guess

at the quantum level realit consists of probability waves or functions. if you use equipment to measure the direction of, say a photon you will find out its direction. if you use equipment to measure the energy of a photon, you will find its energy. you cant know both because the act of measuring determines weather the photon is a particle (moving like a bullet with direction) or it is energy (moving as a wave). untill you measure it both are true, it is both a partical and a wave. this is best demonstrated using a laser and a refraction grating- or a piece of card with slits cut in it. if you shine the lazer through the refraction grating the photons, traveling like bullets (not a good analogy realy but the best i can come up with) will travel in straight line untill they reach the grating, at which point they cease to behave like bullets and behave like waves, traveling through the slits and spreading out like waves entering a narrow harbour entrance will spread and fan out as they pass the entrance and enter the harbour.what you see on the other side of the grating, say on a wall or projector screen is a row of dots spreading out. instead of the original laser spot. this is constructive interferance as the wave "peaks" complement each other. between the spots the waves have destructively interfered with each other leaving nothing, darkness.

this effect alows you to work out the wavelength of light using a refraction grating and a tape measure. if you know how many slits are in the card/refraction grating and the distance from the grating to the wall behind it you measure the distance between spots and use the formula

lambda=D x sin theta/n
where lambda is wave length, D is distance from grating to wall, theta is distance between the spots, and n is number of slits in the refraction grating

as for the last bit. radioactive elements are unstable and radioactive generally due to an excess of nutrons, a nutron is what you get if you squeeze an electron (negative charge) and a proton (positive charge) together. it has a neutral charge. all elements except hydrogen have neutrons. certain ratios of neutron/protons result in stable, not radioactive elements. excess neutrons result in radioactive elements. they fly off. its a bit more complicated than that but im keeping it simple. if you hit an unstable elements nucleus with an other neutron it will knock "excess" neutrons out, resulting in more free neutrons and a stable nucleus. this is basicaly what is hapening in a nuclear reactor except in a reactor the neutrons are slowed by being passed through, say boron so some are captured. all the Lanthanide and Actinide elements are manufactured like this and none occur naturally except in stars.
if you can knock all the excess neutrons out of the radioactive element it will become stable. you will also get a lot of energy-
E=mc2

energy = mass lost x the speed of light squared

no one mentions the "mass lost" bit but thats what it refers to

 

[Meduzz]

If it works with all of them it will mean that they can neutralise / transmutate all the worlds radioactive waste into harmless substances .

That is what radioactive compounds do automatically. Maybe the technique you describe speeds up desintegration?

 

[GOD]

Thanks Drugless for the understandable explenation , thats what they were talking about with the electron charge . I had it in my mind that it was a bit like changing the north to south position of metal filings with a magnet so that they turned round to face south to north . I think that they were also talking about using pares of electrons or maybe photons to transfer information across great distances . By agitating the one the other reacted the same . I think we talked about that before . Where they had sent information over about 100 kilometers and were now trying to do it over the atlantic . Is this information exchange instantanious or is it at the speed of light ?

As for the bit about radiation maybe i got it wrong with saying they were knocking electrons off and they were realy knocking off neutrons . They said it was safe though and didnt mention any problems with what you said about E=mc2 .

 

[druglessdouglas]

if you can pair enough electrons you have a faster than light comunication device. if you change the spin of one electron (in an entangled pair) the other changes spin direction at exactly the same time even if you separate them accross a galaxy. ive been talking about this for 10 years

 

[GOD]

So people talking about the speed of light being the ultimate speed is a load of balls as i`ve been saying for years to .

I think i remember them saying that when the do the knocking of neutrons bit that there was a short xray flash , could that be the E=mc2 bit you were talking about ?

 

[druglessdouglas]

the mass is converted to pure energy. a lot of energy

tachyons (fast ones) may have been detected at Cern, or one of these big coliders. like above, subatomic particles induce a current in a magnetic field. these particals can be tracked because the big detectors are made up of thousands of superconducting magnets, consisting of many many coils of superconductor. the particle induces a current in these different coils as it travels which can be plotted/

they have measured these trails very slightly before the collision that caused them! they are traveling back in time.
tachyons

 

[GOD]

Then maybe i missed something . I know that they said that they could do it safely so i will have to try to watch a repeat of the programm and suss that out so i can tell you . They usualy get repeated on another channel 3 times on one day .

 

[druglessdouglas]

X rays can be absorbed by lead for example, and converted to heat. thats safe
the prob is you can only do that to very small amounts of material at a time because even a small mass produces so much energy it would have to be dissipated very quickly. a new power source? make steam drive turbines.

btw thats why Star Treck transporters would never work
E=mc2

 

[GOD]

I was wondering how they were going to neutralise all the neuclear wastin the world and how long it would take . Thats an awfull lot of particles to bombard and split off .

 

[BrainEater]

thanks a lot for understandable explanations drugless.

 

[druglessdouglas]

I was wondering how they were going to neutralise all the neuclear wastin the world and how long it would take . Thats an awfull lot of particles to bombard and split off .

if you filled railway trucks with all the radioactive waste (high level) they could circle the earth. thats ignoring all the hospital waste, smoke alarms, neon lights, work gloves and boots........

it would take a long time. still worth doing if it works.

my idea is to fire it into space using a supergun and dumping it on the moon, but we will be mining Helium 3 there soon for our fusion reactors.

 

[BrainEater]

why not shoot all the radioactive waste to the moon or to another planet???


... that's what i thought, too... but then i heard you can't bring it to a point which is so far away from the earth...

 

[GOD]

You mean one of those magnetic things like wot trains can hover on ? Am to anoyed to remember what they are called , probably cortisol damage to the last few brain cells after being called a snitch by a loony . Is it called a linear acelerator ???? I mean where they switch magnetic coils fast and shoot another magnet with it . Have often thought the same but was thinking of shooting it into the sun . Thought maybe it makes the sun burn longer and extends life on this planet for a few milliseconds..... Was worryed though that one day a load would hit something going up and spread nuclear wast like rain all over the planet .

 

[druglessdouglas]

it doesnt have to be a rail gun. there are guns powerfull enough to put 1ton into near earth orbit. they were originally developed to launch satelites but satelites are too fragile to safely shoot into space. you could then use ion drives, solar powered, to dump it on the moon. a supergun is much less likely to go wrong than a rocket. they were well tested by nasa . just get it off my planet
its not a perfect solution but sone elements have a half life measured in thousands of years. and ironicly the less radioactive elements can be more dangerous than the strongly radioactive ones because they damage DNA without killing the cell, causing mutations like cancer

 

[GOD]

What about digging a very deep pit and then doing a "controled" melt down and letting it sink to the center of the earth ? Wouldnt that destroy it ?

 

[druglessdouglas]

big pits are where its going at the moment. in america they are puting it in zinc tankers shrouded in titanium then sinking them into an old mine around 2 miles deep. the problem is it has to stay underground without leaking for 20,000 years. anything can happen in that time. and there is SO much, a mind boggling amount. what we need is another war so we can get rid of our depleted Uranium in the form of armor piercing shells. thatll sort it

 

[Forkbender]

^you mean one earthquacke and 'BOOOOOM!!!' (*writing his next sci-fi-blockbuster).