How Does Nuclear Waste Disposal Work?

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Sources:

Wiles, Donald, The Chemistry of Nuclear Fuel Waste Disposal, Polytechnic International Press, 2002

Canada Enters the Nuclear Age, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, 1997

Madsen, Michael, Into Eternity: a Film for the Future, Films Transit International, 2010

[styffydawg]

As a person who is a nuclear plant operator I highly commend your objective view of our industry. I love the fact you pointed out it’s the safest power source on earth right in the start of the video. Thank you!

[alidaggawood]

Pretty sure at this point 90% of the content I consume on YouTube is by Simon, and honestly, I'm glad about that. So much good content for any time or mood.

[stevepople]

Putting the nuclear waste in the pyramids and tombs would protect the mummies and solve the storage issue. Future Egyptologists would have fun working that one out.

[storyspinner]

I used to work for a company in NC that made storage casks for spent plutonium rods. It was fascinating and often controversial - even just being on that end of things.

[sarwnrg]

I lived 20 years 5 km from a nuclear power plant and my father worked at that power plant for 30 years. No radiation gets out of the dome or the storage. The radiation level near the bubble (the reactor enclosure) its the level of the natural background radiation. We tested it in school.

[jacobcooney]

From the way everyone talked about it, I thought we had mountains and mountains of nuclear waste--62.5k tons is *nothing*. Just find a Walmart parking lot in small-town Midwest and leave it there.

[pikmaniac]

You know you're a physics major when hearing "Cesium-137" starts triggering flashbacks.

[peteroemer]

Very good and very accurate. One minor quibble: I believe the Hydrogen that exploded at the Fukushima plants escaped from the reactor cores, not from the spent fuel pools.

Pete

[pamelamays]

Nuclear powered ice cream actually sounds pretty good.
"We put the ice in isotope!"
"Once you try it, you'll just glow all over."🍦☢️

[alaric_]

One important note: the Swedish "Forsmark repository" hasn't been even approved yet, SKB has only selected the suitable site. Meaning it's status is practically the same as every other spent nuclear fuel repository currently being planned. Excluding Onkalo oc which is actually in the process of being built and only 2 years from finishing.

[vincentstouter]

Excellent as always Simon. One thing you might have mentioned is the ability to reconstitute spent nuclear fuel. In an American Commercial Nuclear Reactor the fuel bundle goes thru three fuel cycles before entering the spent fuel cycle. This entails 5 years in the Spent Fuel Cooling Pit, followed by transfer to passively cooled Spent Fuel Storage Casks which are in turn are stored on site. The casks are about 14’ high and 8’ in diameter.

The thing which stops the usefulness of fuel after thee burn cycles is the build up of “Fission Product Poisons” which absorb the neutron flux which is needed to sustain criticality.

That said there is a large amount of fissile fuel retained to the depleted fuel because over the course of a fuel burn the neutron flux produced from slightly enriched U-235 bombards the relatively inert U-238. The U-238 absorbs a neutron which then decays to Plutonium-239 which is also fissile.

By the end of a fuel cycle (End of Life or EOL) most of the fission power is produced by Pu-239 as the U-235 has been expended since the “Beginning of life” (or BOL).

Japan and France (as well as others) recover the left over Pu239 and remove the fission product poisons thru “Reconstitution” whereby the spent fuel is dissolved and then nuclides are separated. The US never engaged in reconstitution due to the political issue of nuclear proliferation (Pu239 can make bombs as well as nuclear fuel).

Where this long dissertation is leading is that by engaging in reconstitution the physical volume and constitution of the fission products can be greatly reduced and the fuel cycle efficiency is greatly enhanced because the wasted Pu-239 is recovered and re-burned.

Ultimately the clean Rx is the Fusion Reactor because one is not splitting large atoms which cause a broad spectrum of unwanted activated fission products. Instead in the fusion Rx small atoms are fused ( Deuterium: (Proton + 1 Neutron) fuses with Tritium: (Proton + 2 Neutrons) to produce Helium: (2 Protons + 2 Neutrons + 1 free Neutron + Released Binding Energy). The technological hurtle with working fusion reactor is still a long way off. The temperatures are extremely high, the change in neutron flux strength is very fast, and containing the plasma if the magnetic field is lost is problematic due to the high temperature.

There is additionally the Thorium Rx technology out there, but I’m not knowledgeable to address this technology.

The importance of a commitment to Nuclear Power to provide clean grid base-load is paramount to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. Solar cells don’t work in the dark or when covered by snow and wind mills don’t turn when the wind doesn’t blow or it’s too cold. There isn’t enough Hydro & Geo-thermal available to meet Grid Base-Load requirements, so in the final analysis we are left with Nuclear Base-Load, decentralization of generation, and increasing the electrical efficiency for electric devices to reduce consumption.😎

[rogerwilco]

I worked for a university after school for a few years doing long-term tests on fuel storage sites at Oak Ridge Nation Labs. We had a 100% storage rate on all sites as a independent result. Those folks take this deadly serious.

[familywilliams]

If I recall correctly from my soils class, Bentonite is not a clay like substance, it is a specific type of clay that can be used as a barrier and water tight sealant.

[interwebtubes]

Yeah this is definitely a very complex subject,
You’ve definitely nailed it,

Time for a bagel and a cup of coffee Simon,

You’ve earned it

[revcrussell]

I am a nuclear engineer, and as for disposal, in Canada, it doesn't happen. Technically all nuclear waste in Canada is in "storage" awaiting the construction of a *disposal* facility. *Storage* implies the waste is retrievable. Disposal is different in that retrieval is not within the scope of design.

[ecds]

Five minutes in.. Noticed the bandage on the right fifth digit... Now I can't unsee it... Great content as usual!

[taylorshawn]

Well done Simon and Danny. I love your channels and this video was no exception. I work in the commercial nuclear power industry, I can say a lot of work goes into the planning and intermediate storage of the waste to keep the public safe. Thank you for the great content once again.

[IsaacNewton]

Maybe the Ark of the Covenant was just ancient nuclear waste from a long lost civilization.

[tropictom]

Do a vid on the origin of the term “ambulance chaser” in terms of lawyers. Real phenomenon? Consequences? Famous cases.

[mammuchan]

In “A short history of nearly everything” Bill Bryson describes how the US dumped barrels of radioactive waste 50kms off the California coast. When the barrels failed to sink, navy gunners riddled them with bullets to let water in ....and the Strontium etc. 😱😳 aren’t we humans just the pinnacle of evolution🧐😂