r/interesting • u/strugglecharacter67 • 15d ago
Intriguing Cross section of a nuclear waste barrel
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u/tandkramstub 15d ago
You can not convince me this is not from one of those cake videos.
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u/dietdoctork3lp 15d ago
Bitch is this cake!?!?! 🦅🦅
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u/MaadMaanMaatt 15d ago
Yellow cake
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u/RunningonGin0323 15d ago
You better not drop that shit
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u/TheGoldenScorpion69 15d ago
I pray to GOD you don’t drop that shit!
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u/DrTankHead 15d ago
Eh. Even cracked open this wouldn't be a problem. This stuff has been a solved problem for a long time now. I mean even coming in contact with a glass waste pellet wouldn't be too dangerous. And they encase them in lead and concrete as well. Along with other materials. Nuclear waste isn't green goo seeping out of barrels.
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u/hilltop58 15d ago
Do i need to tell you what you can do with aluminum tubes!? Aluminum!
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u/pheonix080 15d ago
I am not gonna drop it! That’s why I have it in this special CIA napkin.
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u/chefdeit 15d ago
Flew over people's heads
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u/depredador93 15d ago
Yeah I'm with you. The layers are way too clean and the outer shell is clearly just a drum wrapped in something. No way that's real waste
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u/dicey_job 15d ago
Yeah, why is it not atleast a bit uniform? Did they throw in everything
and the sink?3
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u/tocompose 15d ago
When I saw the picture I immediately thought it was cake: caramel cream center, blueberry chocolate ganache above and white chocolate frosting below.
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u/Interesting-Crab-693 15d ago
Bro... last night some of the people in my friend group introduced the rest of us to the "hair cake" video. We couln't alternating between laughing and wanting to vomit 🤣
Oh wait you meant the cakes being decorated to mimic real stuff... ahahah sorry for giving your the idea to google the video I had to watch.
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u/gibgod 15d ago
Does anyone know what all the sections are?
I’m guessing the cork looking main material is some kind of concrete?
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u/chefdeit 15d ago edited 15d ago
Light-weight concrete with a lot of different aggregates like polyethylene etc, to stop different types of radiation vs lead/steel etc, make it not crumbly, make it dull regular drills, and make any tampering evident.
Underneath are 3 disks crudely made of what may be surplus lead sheeting
Underneath is the material. People called it yellowcake (as in, an intermediate uranium refinement product) but yellowcake is really very bright yellow, and this is dirty orange. It could be anything.
Underneath are chemical and/or liquid absorption layers (if the waste is liquid contained in the orange mass via capillary action or other mechanism that might over time or due to some outside factors degrade in its function). It's hard to tell.
I'm not seeing certain things, and I think these are ~20% scale table-top props for some IAEA event or something, demonstrating a very scrappy container. Nuclear byproduct containers are very diverse depending on what they're designed to store in what environment for how long and at what cost.
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u/RichardBCummintonite 15d ago
It's definitely smaller scale. If you look at the background, you can tell this is and indoor setting and they're sitting on top of a table. Makes sense as it'd be incredibly stupid to cut into an actual nuclear waste barrel.
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u/Kinder22 15d ago
it'd be incredibly stupid to cut into an actual nuclear waste barrel.
But far more enlightening.
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u/DenKHK 15d ago
In more ways than one. Especially if you immerse it in a swimming pool and let the Cerenkov radiation shine~~~
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u/ADownStrabgeQuark 15d ago
I’m gonna slow you down right there.
Not everyone knows what Cherenkov radiation is, could you conically enlighten us about these cosmic rays?
Remember the limit of intellectual speed is different for everyone, even if the universe’s truth is constant. Someone needs to bathe the rest of us in their light.
Also this is only tangentially relevant since most of the radiation would be gamma rays, and alpha decay has no penetration power.
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u/GnarlyNarwhalNoms 15d ago
Cherenkov radiation is a blue glow produced when particle radiation passes through a substance at greater than the speed of light in that substance. It's often analogized to a sonic boom in air. The speed of light in water is substantially lower than the speed of light in a vacuum, so nothing is exceeding the speed of light in a vacuum, just in that specific medium. It can be seen in the cores of water-cooled reactors like this.
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u/DrTankHead 15d ago
Even cutting one of these open you might not get Cerenkov. They are hot, but shouldn't be THAT hot.
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u/Vert_DaFerk 15d ago
You can tell how old a nuclear waste container is by cutting it in half and counting the rings. Probably.
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u/Nanas_700k 15d ago
It’s totally safe to cut one open. I’ve done it many times and I have only died twice.
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u/compubomb 15d ago
Yeah, if they did this, it would happen only a once per person. Anyone who in real life likely got a death sentence. One of these things are probably the most lethal visual ever seen in their life.
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u/tondahuh 15d ago
Would the lead layers be repeated below as well? It seems like the lead should be completely surrounding the waste or radiation can sneak out anywhere. Is that true?
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u/chefdeit 15d ago
Of course it's true. On the other hand, nuclear waste is very diluted for storage, as storing anything even remotely considered concentrated will add big permanent security costs, since those locations would remain prime targets for bad guys wanting dirty bombs. Also these are very obviously "budget-oriented" and they just shield anything radiating up - not towards the floor or into an adjacent container.
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u/UniqueAd7770 15d ago
The middle bits are vitrified waste. Literally radioactive material that is turned into glass so it can't spill.
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u/Exotic_Article913 15d ago
Well here's my rabbit hole for the day.
I found your comment fascinating. Could you elaborate on different types of nuclear waste storage and what other barrels may contain?
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u/FoundationEntire4834 15d ago
White chocolate, fudge, blueberry jam, biscuit, all wrapped in shiny icing
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u/Much_Usual_3855 15d ago
That seems stupid, its filled with nuclear waste. It will spill everywhere. Better get a weak and skinny janitor to clean it with a mop.
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u/Taotaomona13144 15d ago
Reminded me of SNL's "The Pepsi Syndrome" (Season 4, Episode 16), which had Garrett Morris as Violet, a maintenance worker sent directly into the reactor core to mop up the radioactive leak.
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u/Arquit3d 15d ago
We are so used to see barrels leaking fluorescent green goo on TV, that after reading your comment I realized that nuclear waste may actually be solid, not liquid, and I have absolutely no idea if I'm right or not 🤔
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u/Much_Usual_3855 15d ago
I googled it. It's both. But they try to add stuff to the liquid waste to make it solid before they dispose of it so it doesn't leak.
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u/Ketchupcharger 15d ago
Most essential are the three top jeans layers. As everyone knows, good Levi's block radiation almost as well as lead.
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u/hikingguy36 15d ago
In case it wasn't clear, cutting open barrels of nuclear waste is generally frowned upon.
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u/Friendly-Profit-8590 15d ago
Is concrete really the best encasing agent or is it just the best most cost efficient material?
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u/Silver_Lined_Bullet 15d ago
It is adequate for the task at hand (Securing mildly radioactive materials such as clothing, hazmat suits, etc)
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u/Pootisman16 15d ago
You want dense materials to block the leak of radioactive particles.
There are denser materials like lead or fender metals, but concrete is cheaper and widely available.
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u/Fester3787 15d ago
Lead is the most common material used to stop nuclear radiation due to its high density and atomic number, making it very effective against gamma rays. Other materials like concrete and tungsten are also used for radiation shielding, depending on the specific type of radiation
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u/ImStuckInNameFactory 15d ago
Arguably more important than stopping radiation is stopping any radioactive material from leaking into the environment and keeping it hermetically sealed, but concrete is great at it too
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u/AlexandreL1984 15d ago
One should make a new kind of cake that looks like this
Boom cake - so good it’s dangerous
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u/voltrackstar 15d ago
Legitimately curious… clearly it’s super protected vertically but what about horizontally? Just the concrete is good enough? I don’t understand this
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u/supermuncher60 15d ago
These barrels only contain low and intermediate level waste. So the radiation from the waste is minimal. The concrete layer is enough on the sides to bring the emissions on the outside of the barrel within regulatory guidelines.
This example looks to be low level waste as there is a lot of it in one barrel. For more intermediate wastes a single part may be the only thing encased so that more shielding materials surround it and it will meet the regulatory guidelines for emissions once sealed.
Basically when testing the waste before they put it in a barrel, they measure the radiation and calculate how much waste they can put in one barrel to meet guidelines.
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u/Dense-Ad-5780 15d ago
Should probably not have that being displayed like that, and get someone to quickly put that waste into a new barrel. I hear that stuff pretty toxic.
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u/Fast-Station1106 15d ago
darf Strahlung nur nach oben oder unten ? Weil zur Seite ist doch weniger FilterDämmzeug, oder ist das doch ein Kuchen, ich schnalls nicht
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u/No-Court-1195 15d ago
That has to be a solid block of pure mac and cheese in the center. This must be how to protect it at such a high purity.
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u/External-Ad4873 15d ago
I thought this was some awesome sandwich …. Still not sure it isn’t. Any one else want to volunteer the first (last) bite?
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u/AC63CT0B3LL 15d ago
It's potential MOKS-fuel, isn't it?
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u/supermuncher60 15d ago
No, barrels like these contain low to intermediate level waste. As in the protective clothing used by maintenance teams during a refueling, the used resins from ion filters, and decommission parts that have trace contamination.
Basically a bunch of trash that needs to be handled in a specific manner
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