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range() constructs a list.  The list takes 4 bytes/entry, so 
you get about 40MB reclaimed when the list goes away.  The 
space for integer objects happens to be immortal, though, 
and the approximately 12 bytes per integer doesn't go away.  
Space for floats is also immortal, BTW.

There aren't easy resolutions.  For example, the caching of 
space for integer objects in a dedicated internal int freelist 
speeds many programs.  And if Python didn't do special 
memory allocation for ints, malloc overhead would probably 
boost the memory burden in your example to 16 bytes/int.

So there are tradeoffs.  Note that xrange() can usually be 
used instead to create one integer at a time (instead of 
creating 10 million simultaneously).  Then the memory burden 
is trivial.