Nuclear Waste Recycling



"If you want to sustain the nuclear renaissance, you have to deal with the back end." 
-Remi Coulon
A sustainable model for Nuclear power:


http://www.world-nuclear.org/uploadedImages/org/info/Nuclear_Fuel_Cycle.png?n=7249

As you can see from this diagram, a healthy model for nuclear power is one that looks like more of a circle than a line. The current model that is widely used is a one way process, with no room for recycling waste. 

Current Nuclear Initiatives:


  • Used nuclear fuel has long been reprocessed to extract fissile materials for recycling and to reduce the volume of high-level wastes.
  • New reprocessing technologies are being developed to be deployed in conjunction with fast neutron reactors which will burn all long-lived actinides.
  • A significant amount of plutonium recovered from used fuel is currently recycled into MOX fuel; a small amount of recovered uranium is recycled.




Atomic Goal: 800 Years of Power From Waste


TerraPower, a start-up led by Bill Gates, is at work on a new kind of reactor that would be fueled by today’s nuclear waste.

 One of the most innovative minds in modern technology, Bill Gates, is currently funding a project that will hopefully some day be the future of nuclear power. The start-up that he is funding, TerraPower, is interested in turning the waste of today into the fuel for tomorrow. Unfortunately, the US is not ready for such a risky investment at this point in time, due to the stigma behind nuclear power. Consequently, Mr. Gates is selling the plans to the reactor to China. Hopefully once the US sees the reactor become a success in China, they will realize that they need to invest in this new method of nuclear power. 
The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) at Sellafield , UK
THORP

 http://www.world-nuclear.org/uploadedImages/org/info/Nuclear_Fuel_Cycle/Fuel_Recycling/thorp.jpg

 I visited an experimental nuclear reactor at MIT. There was a set program to tour the reactor, and to hear lectures and presentations from MIT professors and other people with knowledge on the subject. Over the course of the day, I saw the reactor while it was not being used, and I saw many videos and diagrams of how it worked and what sort of things that it was used for. Obviously, this reactor is an experimental reactor, so it was not actually used to produce any sort of significant power. However, many experiments are done with it, and it helps many students of MIT get a grasp on nuclear power and how it works. This particular reactor is not one of the new reactors that recycles waste, but I was able to learn a lot about nuclear waste from a certain lecture about it that I heard that day. Currently, the waste from this reactor is basically being shipped away and stored, just like that of most modern reactors. One interesting thing that I learned is that this particular reactor is the only reactor in the US that is located on the campus of a research university. Perhaps, if more research was done in the US about nuclear technology, we would have a more advanced grasp on nuclear power than we do currently. From what I heard in the lectures that day is that scientists are optimistic about nuclear power for the future, we just are not quite where we need to be in terms of scientific advances at this point in time. 

 "Imagine the mess if we mined one ton of coal, burned five percent of it for energy, and then threw away the rest." -Louise Lerner
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