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Re:Fukushima by Turing_Machine on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @10:36AM (#10258828)
"you have areas of land where people won't be able to live for thousands of years.."

Where are these areas? Can you name a few of them?

" in addition to that we have to store the waste from these "safe" plants for few millennia"

Nope. After a couple of hundred years it's no more radioactive than the ore from which it came.

Long half-life = less radioactive. By definition.

Re:Fukushima by mariusz79 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @10:43AM (#10258879)
How about Chernobyl exclusion zone? "Ukrainian officials estimate the area will not be safe for human life again for another 20,000 years" [1]

"The time frame in question when dealing with radioactive waste ranges from 10,000 to 1,000,000 years" [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#The_Exclusi...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste#Long_term_ma...

Re:Fukushima by Turing_Machine on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @10:59AM (#10258980)
There are people living there right now.

"The time frame in question when dealing with radioactive waste ranges from 10,000 to 1,000,000 years"

As I noted below, a long half-life implies less radiation, by definition. "Infinite half-life" = "not radioactive at all".

Anyone who tries to use a long half-life as a scare tactic is either lacking in knowledge or selling something.

Re:Fukushima by vonmoltke on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:30PM (#10261843)
> "Ukrainian officials estimate the area will not be safe for human life again for another 20,000 years"

The source given in the Wiki article is Time: Disasters that Shook the World. Not exactly a scholarly work. It is also the apparent source of this falsehood in the Wiki article: "Even today, radiation levels are so high that the workers responsible for rebuilding the sarcophagus are only allowed to work five hours a day for one month before taking 15 days of rest." According to the article on the exclusion zone itself[1] and the source for said article[2], "More than 3,000 workers manage the Zone, living in Chernobyl town during 4-day and 15-day shifts." Furthermore, the article on the Reactor 4 sarcophagus contains a picture[3] of those same workers less than 200m from Reactor 4 with no protective gear. If radiation levels in the zone were that high they would be fully geared up.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Exclusion_Zone#Popul... [2] http://www.afterchernobyl.com/ [3] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Chernoby...