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http://www.iop.org/Media/Press%20Releases/press_6762.html
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/10/7/13/1
A research group in Germany may have discovered a way to speed the decay process of radioactive waste. They have been sucessful, in some cases, or increasing the decay rate by a factor of 100 or more. They are currently applying their technique to radium-226 (a component of spent nuclear fuel) to validate their theory that it's 16,000 year half-life can be reduced to between 2 and 100 years.
The technique involves encasing the material in a solid matrix, then supercooling it. They theorize that the super-cool conditions reduces the size of the orbital shell. As a result, positively-charged particles from the nucleus are attracted by the electrons have a greater chance of escaping the nucleus, that is, of triggering radioactive decay of the atom. The electron-capture theory so far seems consistent with observed deceases in half -lives of α-decay or β+-decay (positive charge) material. For example, sodium-22 is a β+-decay decay material and polonium-210 is an α-decay material, both which showed reductions in their half-lives (1% in the former case). On the other hand, beryllium-7, which decays when an electron "strikes" the nucleus, demonstrated a longer half-life. This differs from the results of a group of Japanese researchers that were able to reduce the beryllium-7 half-life by 1%, but were unable to improve on that.
The fly in the ointment is that the electron-capture theory defies currently-understood solid-state physics principals, and the only other person to attempt the experiment was unable to reproduce the results. This could either turn out to be another cold-fusion fiasco, or may hold the key to effectively neutralizing nuclear waste. Mind you, holding tonnes of radioactive material at less than 4 degrees kelvin for even a couple of years is an enormously energy-consuming prospect.
Other sources:
http://aussiethule.blogspot.com/2006/10/half-life-heresy-accelerating_23.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060731/full/060731-13.html
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/10/7/13/1
A research group in Germany may have discovered a way to speed the decay process of radioactive waste. They have been sucessful, in some cases, or increasing the decay rate by a factor of 100 or more. They are currently applying their technique to radium-226 (a component of spent nuclear fuel) to validate their theory that it's 16,000 year half-life can be reduced to between 2 and 100 years.
The technique involves encasing the material in a solid matrix, then supercooling it. They theorize that the super-cool conditions reduces the size of the orbital shell. As a result, positively-charged particles from the nucleus are attracted by the electrons have a greater chance of escaping the nucleus, that is, of triggering radioactive decay of the atom. The electron-capture theory so far seems consistent with observed deceases in half -lives of α-decay or β+-decay (positive charge) material. For example, sodium-22 is a β+-decay decay material and polonium-210 is an α-decay material, both which showed reductions in their half-lives (1% in the former case). On the other hand, beryllium-7, which decays when an electron "strikes" the nucleus, demonstrated a longer half-life. This differs from the results of a group of Japanese researchers that were able to reduce the beryllium-7 half-life by 1%, but were unable to improve on that.
The fly in the ointment is that the electron-capture theory defies currently-understood solid-state physics principals, and the only other person to attempt the experiment was unable to reproduce the results. This could either turn out to be another cold-fusion fiasco, or may hold the key to effectively neutralizing nuclear waste. Mind you, holding tonnes of radioactive material at less than 4 degrees kelvin for even a couple of years is an enormously energy-consuming prospect.
Other sources:
http://aussiethule.blogspot.com/2006/10/half-life-heresy-accelerating_23.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060731/full/060731-13.html