 |
|
|
This invention will make nuclear power truly green, as it is on a par with solar and wind, while using far less real estate than either and being capable of continuous operation. What has not been understood by most people is that current power sources release radioactive particles into the air. Coal releases 4.5 ppm (parts per million), “Clean Coal” releases 1.82 ppm, Oil releases 0.39 ppm, and Natural Gas releases 0.19 ppm. Nuclear power releases 0.0 because there is no burning. When Three Mile Island had its accident in 1979, the public wanted the reactors closed. Understandable. A new coal-fired generating station was built 30 miles upwind of TMI to take TMI’s place. TMI was still running the other reactor at the time that testing of the new coal-fired plant was taking place. Radiation alarms went off, sending inspectors racing to contain the dangerous levels of radioactivity the sensors had detected. They finally discovered it was coming from the new generating station– 30 miles upwind!! The amount released was being pumped into the atmosphere on a 24-hour schedule, yet people’s concerns were for a lesser amount briefly released through a containment pressure-relief valve! Solve the waste problem and you solve the contamination problem for nuclear power and make it a “green” method of power. Hence our invention. But uranium is a finite commodity. That’s why there is a call for MOX-fired reactors, using a mixture of nuclear waste and more uranium. This concept has pitfalls because of the plutonium it uses. We believe that thorium reactors are the next upgrade in the nuclear field because there is more thorium in the world than there is tin. And no one has yet proven that a nuclear weapon can be made from thorium reactor waste (U-233). Our project will take any radioactive material – uranium, plutonium, thorium, or anything else. The container for the waste is called a Submarine Transport Vehicle (STV) for political reasons: the London Conference is a treaty banning the dumping of nuclear waste in the oceans or in the seabed. Our STV is similar to a nuclear submarine: it uses the ocean as a transit medium, only ours travels vertically whereas the sub travels horizontally. The seabed is also a transit medium, not a dumping ground, for the STV. The STV is a pressure-compensating device that has no crush depth. The concept of operation is as follows: (1) A unique seal design causes the STV to increase in strength as pressure increases. (2) It is powered by earthquakes and gravity. (3) It starts its journey in a 75’-deep hole in the seabed at a subduction fault in the Pacific Ocean. (4) The seals are dynamic – not static – and maintain a slight difference (delta) in pressure as the STV descends. The internal pressure is slightly less than the external pressure, thereby insuring that any leak would travel from outside to inside with the continuing slow descent of the STV while the pressure delta is maintained. (5) The subduction fault has an unlimited capacity, thereby allowing the U.S. to accept foreign waste without the public becoming concerned about bringing it into the country, and allowing us to greatly reduce the chances of waste falling into unfriendly hands. (6) The slow movement of the STV in the fault will mean that the waste will be harmless by the time it reaches the magma. (7) the shipping containers for the STVs are designed to protect the vehicles in case of an accidental sinking or deliberate attack, the only caveat is that any STV that is being subjected to a reduction in pressure during recovery from such a sinking must be returned for repackaging. (8) The entire concept is based on the dynamics of the earth (earthquakes and gravity) to power the STV and protect the environment from harm. The interior of the earth is not harmed, with most of the heat generated in the earth’s interior already coming from radiation decay. (9) The STVs are, preferably, shipped by water (oceans, navigable rivers). Those reactors already adjacent to navigable water, such as SONGS, could have a dock prepared to load directly onto a ship. Those on rivers, such as TMI, could barge them to a port. The advantage is that, should a terrorist attack take place, the barge can be immediately sunk, strengthening the STVs. When the danger is over, the STVs can be retrieved. This eliminates road and rail shipments. New reactors can be built next to water, and those few that are not can be replaced—as they time-expire—by ones that are. Ultimately, nuclear waste and its transportation becomes a non-issue. At that time, no nuclear waste will travel by road or rail near any population centers. (10) This concept does NOT violate treaties, such as the London Conference regarding oceanic dumping of waste, as the STV uses the ocean and the seabed only as a transportation medium to access the interior of the earth. (11) Once buried in the seabed at a subduction fault, the waste cannot go anywhere but down. Gravity eliminates the chance that the waste, being of much greater mass than the surrounding rock, can return to the surface in a volcano or any other way. (12) The ultimate goal of this concept is not, surprisingly, getting the waste to the earth’s core, but to subject it to the increasing pressures of the descent for the first million years or so. During this time, the slow increase in pressure gives the STV positive seal validity, something a static seal cannot do. The earth is in a constant state of flux, and the people who think we can store waste like storing TV sets clearly do not understand the dynamics involved. This project is the only one that uses the earth’s dynamic forces to protect the environment. |
|
Permanent RadWaste Solutions is ©2002-2009 Dean Engelhardt & Glen Parker,
with related site design ©2002-2009 Aron Parker & Alan Parker. |