Reply To: Animated plasma.

[zapkitty]

Breakable wrote:

Eric stated in the Google Talks video that the core cools down to background radiation levels in 13 hours, citing a half-life of something like 20 minutes. He compares the starting radiation level to a room full of school kids- not much compared to fission plants

I think it should depend on how long you run it.

Why should it?

To simplify it a bit… if the reactor is creating radioactive byproducts with a certain (short) half-life then those products will decay regardless of whether the reactor is operating or not. Thus the most recent byproduct made is what will govern the length of the elevated radiation level in the FF casing.

In other words if you started a standard fission reactor and ran it for only a day you’d still be dealing with radioactive byproducts with a half-life measured in centuries… byproducts that can only be called nuclear waste as they will outlast the lifetime of the reactor that created them many times over.