Use Nuclear 'Waste' as Fuel with the Ultimate Nuclear Reactor

I'm all for it, if it actually works. But I have some concerns.

I mean, this reactor will be burning nuclear waste. Is any of the toxic fumes generated by this process going to be released into the atmosphere? Exposure to something like that has some very unpleasant side effects.

Alternatively, couldn't we just come up with a new storage container for nuclear waste to turn them into nuclear batteries? That's 10,000 years of free energy. Granted, at lesser amounts of output than a reactor.

I would rather see the advancement of nuclear fusion than another fission reactor, personally.

Originally posted by allenidaho
I'm all for it, if it actually works. But I have some concerns.

I mean, this reactor will be burning nuclear waste. Is any of the toxic fumes generated by this process going to be released into the atmosphere? Exposure to something like that has some very unpleasant side effects.

Alternatively, couldn't we just come up with a new storage container for nuclear waste to turn them into nuclear batteries? That's 10,000 years of free energy. Granted, at lesser amounts of output than a reactor.

I would rather see the advancement of nuclear fusion than another fission reactor, personally.

It can use spent nuclear fuel as fuel in a nuclear reaction. It doesn't "burn" the fuel in the conventional way a coal power station burns coal. There is no actual combustion and there is no exhaust gases. The end product is fission products which are the remains of an atom that has been split, which are then turned to glass in a vitrification process. This can then be buried. Some fission products are gaseous but they are fairly small in volume, unreactive and have half lives on the order of a few hours.

Nuclear waste decay heat doesn't put out enough power to make it worthwhile to use for energy.

Fusion already gets billions of dollars worth of funding and is still decades away. I'm not saying we shouldn't persue it, but it's not really comparable to the IFR which can be a reality in 15 years.

China is developing something similar which belongs in this thread:

Summary of China’s fast reactor programme

China is looking seriously at a range of nuclear options. From the commercial side of things, the country is building over 25 light water reactors, including four of the new US-designed AP1000. The Chinese are also pursuing a range of advanced reactor programmes, including gas-cooled pebble-bed modular reactors (the 210 MWe HTR-PM), a thorium-focused research initiative based on the molten-salt reactor, and an ambitious fast spectrum reactor research, demonstration and deployment (RD&D) plan. It is the latter that I wish to discuss here.

bravenewclimate.com...

GE and Hitachi plan new reactor to burn UK plutonium stockpile
Multibillion pound plant at Sellafield would convert UK's nuclear power plant residue into fuel

General Electric set out proposals on Wednesday to build a new nuclear reactor at Sellafield that would convert the UK's stockpile of radioactive plutonium into electricity.

The multibillion pound project would take plutonium – the residue from the UK's nuclear power plants – and use it as fuel for a 600MW reactor that could provide power for 750,000 homes, according to GE Hitachi.

The Prism reactor works by taking the existing plutonium oxide powder in cans, and converting it to metal. That metal is in turn converted into an alloy and mixed with uranium and zirconium, which is put into a fuel bundle and used in a fission reactor. After the fuel is spent, the waste product that is left would be safer than plutonium in the form in which the UK stores it today, because it would be less liable to be used in weapons and would be more easily stored, the company said.

Ministers have been increasingly talking about the future of the stockpile, which costs about £2bn a year to maintain, and some in government want the plutonium to be classed as an asset rather than a liability.

GE would not say how much the plant would be likely to cost, or how much profit it could make, but said the investment would be "multibillion" if it went ahead.

www.guardian.co.uk...

The article is in error though, PRISM has never operated in the US.


There's only one thing left to do.

Build it.

Update:

Plans to build a nuclear fast reactor at Sellafield come a step closer

A radical plan to deal with Britain’s plutonium waste – the biggest civil deposit in the world – has come a step closer with a legal contract to test the feasibility of building an American nuclear fast reactor on the Sellafield site in Cumbria.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which has overall responsibility for Sellafield and its 100-tonne plutonium-waste problem, has signed the deal with GE-Hitachi to see whether its Prism fast reactor can directly eliminate the plutonium waste rather than the alternative method of converting it into mixed oxide (Mox) fuel for conventional nuclear reactors.

Daniel Roderick, senior vice president of GE Hitachi, said that if given the go-ahead the company will form a consortium that will build and operate the plant at no up-front cost to the UK taxpayer.

“We will only charge for each kilogram or tonne of plutonium we dispose of. We’re not going to build a several billion pound plant that doesn’t work,” Mr Roderick said.

The Prism fast reactor would be licensed and built within 10 years of given the go-ahead and it could deal with all the plutonium on a “once-through” basis within five years, he said.

It is believed that Professor David MacKay, chief scientist at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, has been persuaded of the merits of building a fast-reactor at Sellafield.

www.independent.co.uk...

Just hurry up and build it.