NickW + 2,714 NW August 9, 2020 9 hours ago, Ward Smith said: I'm curious about this. Becquerel counts measure emission, but not absorbtion. You make it sound like the steel has accumulated a bunch of rads (absorbtion). Or were they just exposed to radon as a trace gas cruising by on the way someplace else? The plug (PIG) they send down the pipeline scraps out the scale - the radioactivity is in the scale that accumulates / embeds on the plug face and walls . The source is mainly Lead 208 which has decayed from Radon and precipitates out as a metal component of the scale. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ward Smith + 6,615 August 14, 2020 https://grist.org/energy/solar-panels-are-starting-to-die-what-will-we-do-with-the-megatons-of-toxic-trash/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Boat + 1,323 RG August 30, 2020 Trump like with Covid-19 is fully prepared to solve solar panel waste. Just don’t count it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jay McKinsey + 1,490 August 30, 2020 In February, non-profit EU solar panel recycling body PV Cycle announced it had collected 5,000 tons of modules in France, of which 94.7% could be recycled. “Ninety-five per cent is an exceptional recycling figure, especially for a multi-component product,” PV Cycle communications manager Bertrand Lempkowicz told pv magazine France. “Only soda cans can claim to do better but they don’t reach 100% either. A washing machine doesn’t come close to 70% recycling, everyone has one but nobody cares.” What about the 5.3% of solar panel components that is not recycled? “The non-recycled materials are mainly dust trapped in the filters after shredding,” said Lempkowicz. “They don’t count [as part of a solar panel], but these filters will also be recycled. The dust can also be incinerated or used as a substitute for sand in construction, since glass, silicon and silicone are all derived from sand. “The backsheet – the vinyl sheet on the back of the panel used to insulate the components – will be energy recovered. The EVA [ethyl vinyl acetate] or tedlar used [in backsheets] could be used as a binder for paint but this would require cleaning. It is actually more environmentally friendly to incinerate it (in a filtered incinerator) than to use tons of water to clean it” – thus demonstrating the cross-sectoral nature of solar module recycling. https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2020/08/26/recycling-pv-panels-why-cant-we-hit-100/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites