[chimera]

One thing that time does buy is is reduced heat load because of the radioactive decay of the heat-generating fission products in the fuel. The equations which describe this decay process are complex and have a fancy name, the Way-Wigner formula for fission product decay, named after those who developed the theory, Katharine (Kay) Way and Eugene Wigner.

One approximation for the solution to the Way-Wigner formula says that the radioactivity of a group of fission products will drop by a factor of two (half-life) at a rate about equal to their "age", the "age" being how long they have been decaying since they were last involved in a fission process in a reactor core. So, one day after the fission stops, the half-life is about a day. After a week, the half-life is about one week, etc. So as time passes, decay continues to occur, but the overall rate slows down, because you've decayed out the shorter-lived forms, leaving only longer half-lives as time passes. But, still, you do get reduced heat load as time passes. So every day we avoid any major problems is another day of reduction in fission product heat.

Probably small comfort at this point, but something.

[Errant]

Thanks