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The debate continues on the role of nuclear force in electricity generation, as it revolves around climate change.As a source of zero emission force, nuclear force is perceived through many as a supplement of renewable force in the transition to coal electric power.Generation.
The nuclear force, however, has critics, who point to nuclear injuries and say the threat is to value the reward.Then there’s the challenge of what to do with the spent fuel from nuclear power plants.(Read “A secular problem in search of a solution” in the POWER factor of September 2020).
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has provided support and millions of dollars to nuclear power in an effort to revive the country’s nuclear industry, but as new reactor designs are being developed, adding small modular reactors, the challenge of spent nuclear fuel remains a challenge.
Leslie Dewan, a famous nuclear engineer and entrepreneur graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), spoke to POWER about the challenge of nuclear tea and what she thinks about the location of solutions.Dewan recently founded Criticality Capital, a venture capital corporation specializing in nuclear energy and other investments in carbon-free energy.Dewan is known as co-founder and CEO of Transatomic Power, a company founded in 2011 that worked on the design and progression of a molten salt reactor before its design knowledge was put into the public domain.also revered through TIME magazine in December 2013, when TIME chose Dewan as one of the “30 other people under the age of 30 who are turning the world.”
POWER: What do you think is the way to dispose of nuclear waste from the world’s nuclear power plants?Is there a generation that is used today, or not used today, that would be the option (or)?
Dewan: We want a combination of other technologies to solve the nuclear waste challenge well.In the previous process, we want to invest more in the progression of new types of reactors and a new fuel bureaucracy, such as steel and uranium fuel, that can achieve a higher combustion rate than imaginable in today’s advertising reactors.Combustion is a measure of the fraction of spent nuclear fuel that has been physiogized in a reactor.In a typical reactor today, the combustion rate is around 5%.general radioactive life of waste, changing their composition from longer-lived actinides to fes, which sometimes have a much shorter half-life.
Ideally, we can take this spent nuclear fuel and extract extra energy by putting it back into a nuclear reactor.There are several new reactor designs that will be able to do so, and countries like France and the UK already are.The reuse of additional spent nuclear fuel alters its composition of long-lasting actinides in commission products.However, there is a warning about this approach: reusing spent nuclear fuel sometimes requires reprocessing it effectively by separating key isotopes, and this can pose a risk of proliferation.
But that doesn’t solve the whole problem! Even with high-combustion reactors, reprocessing and reusing fuel, you still have waste. The existing formula is made up of first letting it cool in a pool of spent fuel and then in a dry tank. Well then you have to find a way to buy it long term. In my opinion the way to do this is by using deep well reservoirs. These place debris up to about 3 miles below the earth’s surface, keeping it away from groundwater and keeping it remote on geologic time scales.
POWER: Should there be a national waste depot and, if so, where to be located or what type of geological formation (or other site) should be considered?
Dewan: Yes, it’s ideal for the federal government.
As for the location, it is necessary to place a deposit in a geologically sound domain where it can be drilled at depths well under any existing aquifer, in addition, it is necessary to drill the tank in granite or saturated clay, these environments create what is called a “reducing environment”, which particularly minimizes corrosion and can the waste box remain intact indefinitely.
ENERGY: There are low structure sites in Texas and New Mexico for the transient nuclear waste garage. Is this a smart idea and how can those sites triumph over local opposition? Should the federal government interfere or is it strictly a matter of state?
Dewan: The temporary garage is necessary, but you want to be very controlled.There is a threat that garage cartridges will corrode or break for longer periods of time.In the same vein: I would be interested to see more corporations expand further tracking apparatus for transitional garage boxes and underground garage boxes.There is an expanding market for this product and more real-time tracking would be a big step to expand public confidence in those new garage facilities.
More broadly: this is a namely sensitive challenge because it will not be solved only through new technologies.We also want to make certain that we listen the considerations of other folks living close to the site, communicating with them about how the site works and its have an effect on on their community.The sites are safe, yet they are not absolutely risk-free.And frankly, it will probably be very tricky and will take a long time for the nuclear industry to have those conversations.Over the decades, the industry has lost a lot of public confidence.We will have to be namely open, communicative and humble if we are to regain that trust.
POWER: Do you have any other ideas on what might solve the nuclear waste storage challenge?
Dewan: The temporary garage will run for decades to come, but we still have to think long term here.We can’t keep kicking on the road. The other aspect of the coin is that we have time to think deeply about the challenge and get well.
I am very excited about the various study efforts and new corporations that are addressing this problem, and I believe that a combination of superior combustion reactors, waste-consuming reactors, deep well depots and new remote tracking technologies will be able to solve this problem.
—Darrell Proctor is editor of POWER (DarrellProctor1, @POWERmagazine).
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