Spread it over a large surface area?

[Blenton]

I assume there is something wrong with my thinking, but couldn't you be able to speed up the decay of radioactive waste by spreading it over a large surface area so that it could disperse its energy much better? I understand half life refers to the majority bulk of a material, but if you were to spread the material into individual atoms, what happens then?

[Vanadium 50]

The atoms decay when they decay. The environment they are in makes no difference.

[Blenton]

Then individual uranium atoms are safe for about 4.7 billion years?

[vanesch]

Then individual uranium atoms are safe for about 4.7 billion years?

On average, yes :smile:

[Bob S]

All radioactive atoms (nuclei of atoms) remain radioactive and potentially harmful for a few or many half-lives until they decay. Sometimes they decay into other radioactive atoms. They normally emit alphas, betas (electrons or positrons), or gamm rays. I have read that some low-Z electron-capture decay half lives can be changed by maybe 0.1% by packing them in dense crystals. The best way to treat reactor wastes (other than Yucca Mountain) is to irradiate them with neutrons or "burn" them up in a subcritical reactor that is assisted by a proton accelerator. See
http://www.wipp.energy.gov/science/adtf/ATW.pdf

[gmax137]

All radioactive atoms (nuclei of atoms) remain radioactive and potentially harmful for a few or many half-lives until they decay. Sometimes they decay into other radioactive atoms. They normally emit alphas, betas (electrons or positrons), or gamm rays. I have read that some low-Z electron-capture decay half lives can be changed by maybe 0.1% by packing them in dense crystals. The best way to treat reactor wastes (other than Yucca Mountain) is to irradiate them with neutrons or "burn" them up in a subcritical reactor that is assisted by a proton accelerator. See
http://www.wipp.energy.gov/science/adtf/ATW.pdf

Well that's very interesting, but the answer to the OP is as stated above: No, it does not matter if you "spread it out over a larger surface area."