this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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I wonder.....can nuclear waste can be turned into something useful like micro nuclear power plant or for powering a car or just powering phones ?
I mean although it's just waste it's still hold some capacity to powering something small right.....
Nuclear waste can be reprocessed and mostly recycled (to an extent). The French recycle their fuel, and America could do so as well but choose not to do so.
I'd argue that reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and reusing it makes much more sense than sticking it in a Yucca Mountain or similar repository.
Most of it is slightly radioactive stuff that you wouldn't want to be around long term but you could stand next to without issue. The problem with it is that you don't want it getting into groundwater/,/food chain etc, because then you drink/consume it, it gets stuck in you and you are 'standing next to it' for the rest of your life.
There is more dangerous waste too, but less of it. That offers the same problem, but worse. Normally, this is actively managed, but obviously not in this case.
The fuel itself (for nuclear ractiors, not relevant for weapons) can be recycled, but it's generally cheaper to get fresh fuel. Additionally, the processes are generally similar to nuclear weapons production, so people start getting nervous.
After i checked on internet, there's some time in history that people back then used to produce depleted uranium bullets for weapon sadly it banned because Geneva Convention, for me that proof nuclear waste can be turned into something useful i guess.....
Maybe we can't turned it into something useful because the limit of technology of our time, i always dreamed someday in the future we can powered our house with some nuclear waste with micro reactor or just powering car (like car in fallout game, although when the car explode it became real problem)
I thought depleted uranium was still used in weapons? The uranium itself is probably less than 1% of the total waste unfortunately, think of Fukushima, most of the waste is slightly radioactive water.
It’s my understanding most “nuclear waste” is “stuff that has some residual radiation from being inside the radioactive area of a nuclear power plant” like machinery and general trash. In addition, radioactive water can be cleaned up enough to reuse in the steam cycle, and then you just have to get rid of the fairly radioactive resin once it’s spent.
And before someone asks, no, the water some plants have coming out of their cooling towers is not that radioactive water, it’s a separate loop of water that is used to cool the primary loop.