8 ms·
Gen IV reactors offer a pretty alluring solution to the so-called waste problem. Being able to close the nuclear fuel cycle, and even consume existing nuclear w
by Bluestrike2 11y ago
Gen IV reactors offer a pretty alluring solution to the so-called waste problem. Being able to close the nuclear fuel cycle, and even consume existing nuclear waste from older reactors, would be much more effective than just locking it all away. Right now, we're only using about 5 percent of the energy in nuclear fuel, where we could be looking at something closer to 95 percent. Instead of looking at transuranics as a problem, we should look at them as a resource in themselves in the future.
- legulere 11y agoThey're way too far away. 2030 maybe, 2040 or 2050 more likely. Those are timelines in which we can replace everything with renewables
- astrodust 11y agoIndia figured out how to re-burn used nuclear material in their reactors due to an embargo. Surely the US can figure this out if they had to.
- maxerickson 11y agoBluestrike2 is talking about consuming much more of the spent fuel material than existing reprocessing. India is getting ready to turn on a fast reactor that they can use to produce more fuel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_Fast_Breeder_Reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_Fast_Breeder_Reactor But I don't think it will be able to consume as much waste products as the Gen IV stuff, it focuses on making more fuel.