5 ms·

Long term nuclear waste storage messaging

4 points by tomasreimers 3y ago

uberman 3y ago
We go to a lot of effort to try to safeguard storage of spent fuel. But did you know such fuel still has 90% of its energy and can be reused? https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-nuclear-fuel https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-... we just choose to throw it away while other governments choose to reuse it.
- cratermoon 3y ago
  "reprocessing is technically demanding and expensive. It also still also produces some amount of high-level waste" https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230613-onkalo-has-finland-found-the-answer-to-spent-nuclear-fuel-waste-by-burying-it https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230613-onkalo-has-finla...
  - uberman 3y ago
    Sure, but since some states do it, it seems to me that getting 3 or 5 times the energy out our your fule before discarding it is something we should explore even if we ultimately bury it in the end.
    - cratermoon 3y ago
      > getting 3 or 5 times the energy What do you mean '3 to 5 times the energy'? By what measure? How does that work? What's the cost? What are the risks?
      - uberman 3y ago
        Well not being an expert in the field, this is admittedly an extrapolation. However, what I have read is that after first use, spent fule still has 90% of its energy. Potentially we discard 9 times the available energy. I offered 3 to 5 times as I'm sure we would not get 9 times but maybe we could or maybe we could only recycle it once given our current science. Still getting twice the energy seems like a great idea to me. https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-nuclear-fuel#:~:text=That's%20right!,%2C%20such%20as%20France%2C%20do https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-.... That nievely suggest to me that there is a bunch left to use. Hence why some countries recycle it back into fule. I dont know how the recycling process works. The risks as stated by several articles seem to be that during reprocessing bad actors could get a hold of it. Why are you so resistant to the idea that we might recycle and reuse spent fule rather than mine, refine, and discard new fule?

4 points by tomasreimers 3y ago

We go to a lot of effort to try to safeguard storage of spent fuel. But did you know such fuel still has 90% of its energy and can be reused? https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-nuclear-fuel https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-... we just choose to throw it away while other governments choose to reuse it.

cratermoon 3y ago
"reprocessing is technically demanding and expensive. It also still also produces some amount of high-level waste" https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230613-onkalo-has-finland-found-the-answer-to-spent-nuclear-fuel-waste-by-burying-it https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230613-onkalo-has-finla...
- uberman 3y ago
  Sure, but since some states do it, it seems to me that getting 3 or 5 times the energy out our your fule before discarding it is something we should explore even if we ultimately bury it in the end.
  - cratermoon 3y ago
    > getting 3 or 5 times the energy What do you mean '3 to 5 times the energy'? By what measure? How does that work? What's the cost? What are the risks?
    - uberman 3y ago
      Well not being an expert in the field, this is admittedly an extrapolation. However, what I have read is that after first use, spent fule still has 90% of its energy. Potentially we discard 9 times the available energy. I offered 3 to 5 times as I'm sure we would not get 9 times but maybe we could or maybe we could only recycle it once given our current science. Still getting twice the energy seems like a great idea to me. https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-nuclear-fuel#:~:text=That's%20right!,%2C%20such%20as%20France%2C%20do https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-.... That nievely suggest to me that there is a bunch left to use. Hence why some countries recycle it back into fule. I dont know how the recycling process works. The risks as stated by several articles seem to be that during reprocessing bad actors could get a hold of it. Why are you so resistant to the idea that we might recycle and reuse spent fule rather than mine, refine, and discard new fule?