Cool, if it proves reproducible. see also
Radioactive Waste Could be Rendered Harmless by Cooling It http://www.azom.com/details.asp?newsID=6181 Harry Walter Faxon wrote: > Astrophysicist speeds up radioactive decay > Other boffins sceptical > By Lucy Sherriff > Published Tuesday 1st August 2006 10:45 GMT > > A German physicist thinks he may have found a way to accelerate the > process of nuclear decay, dramatically shortening the half life of > dangerous nuclear waste. > > Claus Rolfs, chair of experimental physics at Ruhr University, and his > team suggest that embedding an alpha emitter in metal and cooling it to > just a few degrees Kelvin could reduce its half life to perhaps just tens > of years, instead of thousands. If he is right, the whole business of > burying nuclear waste in concrete bunkers could be neatly side-stepped. > > Full story at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/01/faster_decay/ > > If true, gives some support to prior research on low-energy nuclear > reactions (LENR; cold fusion). > > -Walter > >
