3 ms·

Aren't there now ways of renewing (for lack of a better word) spent nuclear fuel?

NikolaeVarius 5y ago
Anti nuclear sentiment has made it very difficult to build/research ways of processing currently "spent"fuel
alkonaut 5y ago
They are in the research state, no production facilities as far as I know. I hope the tech is ready soon so at least some waste can be disposed that way.
- bananabreakfast 5y ago
  This is very outdated. "Nuclear fuel reprocessing is performed routinely in Europe, Russia and Japan" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reprocessing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reprocessing
  - alkonaut 5y ago
    Oh I meant specifically in power generation, i.e. using the spent as fuel in "next gen" plants, thereby reprocessing it. The idea of course being that if it produces energy then some of the cost can be offset and that the end result has a much shorter half life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor
pyrale 5y ago
Never completely. Spent material is also casing for the actual fuel, for instance, which can't be reused. In the fuel itself, there is some uranium and plutonium which can be reused, but there are also atoms produced by the fission which are not useful. For instance, a possible output of an uranium atom splitting could be one Krypton atom and one Baryum atom. Both are radioactive, and the path for krypton to a non-radioactive atom includes one step with a half-life of ~10^6 years. There is also waste from the plant itself. When you decomission a plant, the vessel steel is going to be radioactive and needs to be stored safely. There are plenty or other waste types that can be stored more or less safely. Some can be reused, some not.
bananabreakfast 5y ago
yes, nuclear reprocessing is actually a fairly old technology and it closes the nuclear fuel cycle, leaving only short lived byproducts. It is currently illegal in America because reprocessing spent nuclear fuel produces weapons grade plutonium which is a proliferation risk. The economics are not great either since it's cheaper to just mine more uranium and pay to store the (5% used) fuel. France and Russia have a few plants that do it though.

Anti nuclear sentiment has made it very difficult to build/research ways of processing currently "spent"fuel

They are in the research state, no production facilities as far as I know. I hope the tech is ready soon so at least some waste can be disposed that way.

bananabreakfast 5y ago
This is very outdated. "Nuclear fuel reprocessing is performed routinely in Europe, Russia and Japan" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reprocessing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reprocessing
- alkonaut 5y ago
  Oh I meant specifically in power generation, i.e. using the spent as fuel in "next gen" plants, thereby reprocessing it. The idea of course being that if it produces energy then some of the cost can be offset and that the end result has a much shorter half life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor

pyrale 5y ago

Never completely. Spent material is also casing for the actual fuel, for instance, which can't be reused. In the fuel itself, there is some uranium and plutonium which can be reused, but there are also atoms produced by the fission which are not useful. For instance, a possible output of an uranium atom splitting could be one Krypton atom and one Baryum atom. Both are radioactive, and the path for krypton to a non-radioactive atom includes one step with a half-life of ~10^6 years. There is also waste from the plant itself. When you decomission a plant, the vessel steel is going to be radioactive and needs to be stored safely. There are plenty or other waste types that can be stored more or less safely. Some can be reused, some not.

bananabreakfast 5y ago

yes, nuclear reprocessing is actually a fairly old technology and it closes the nuclear fuel cycle, leaving only short lived byproducts. It is currently illegal in America because reprocessing spent nuclear fuel produces weapons grade plutonium which is a proliferation risk. The economics are not great either since it's cheaper to just mine more uranium and pay to store the (5% used) fuel. France and Russia have a few plants that do it though.