|
I'm sorry; I couldn't help pointing out your confusion between radioactivity and ionizing radiation. It’s a common misunderstanding among perhaps 99% of the population. The fact is that radioactivity causes radiation, and it is the radiation that is dangerous (discounting the chemical toxicity of some of the products).
The amount of radioactivity, measured in curies, does not change; however the specific activity in curies per volume does. That is accomplished by dilution, in the case of vitrification, dilution in leaded glass.
Radiation is attenuated by two methods, as you pointed out, one is shielding by massive material, in this case the lead in the glass. The other is distance from the source which, in the case of gamma radiation, obeys the inverse square law that most of us learned about in high school physics class. Classic health physics also lists time, which means to limit the amount of time one is exposed. In this case that is moot.
So, vitrification accomplishes two objectives. The first is it attenuates the radiation utilizing shielding and distance. And second is it provides a chemically and mechanically stable environment to store the stuff.
That’s all fine in the short term, but this stuff lasts for geological periods of time. No matter how well it’s packaged, we are creating poisons that will burden our descendants for hundreds of generations.
|