Reply #72: blue glow

[divvy]

Here's a picture of spent fuel being stored in a deep pool. (example only) The blue glow is the well-known Cerenkov radiation. It arises from fission products undergoing (n,p) reactions, i.e. converting neutrons into protons, and emitting an electron (beta particle). Because the beta particle is travelling faster than the speed of light, it emits electromagnetic radiation (light) in a 45-degree angled cone around the direction of its forward path. The frequency of this light happens to be in visible spectrum, and is blue.

nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum. But the speed of light in water is something like 2/3 of its speed in vacuum. So the beta particles (electrons) emitted can travel faster...and they do, which is what causes the blue radiation.

Yes, adding water and boron is all you have to do... simple in theory. Application, not so easy, when all the equipment is disabled, and it's virtual suicide for anyone to approach the area directly.

A major culprit here, it seems to me, is the practice of storing multiple generations of spent fuel in "temporary" cooling pools on site. No nuke plant is design for long-term storage of spent fuel, right? But there's nowhere else to put it. Very bad planning, and after 50 years of commercial nuke plants, there's been no improvement.