Energy from Nuclear Waste: Switzerland Approves first Accellerator-Driven Reactor

Nuclear power is one of the most promising ways to create a clean, cheap, and consistent flow of electricity. Unfortunately, it also produces radioactive waste, which can stick around for…a very long time. However, that waste issue might just be changing thanks to a process called transmutation. A Swiss company just got approval for the first accelerator-driven nuclear reactor that can do transmutation. How does this work? Let’s take a look.

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#science #sciencenews #nuclear

[barryon]

"Accelerating protons -- where have we heard this before?" My genuine first thought: Ghostbusters!

[nohphd]

Another transmutation idea is in-situ transmutation in the molten salt reactors. The MSRs have even been proposed as “actinide burners.” MSRs could replace shut down LWRs, using the existing generators and electrical distribution facilities and burn the high level radioactive waste currently stored onsite in those huge flasks. You’d be killing a flock of birds with one stone.

[markdowning]

I was eagerly waiting for the scene where you shoot laser beams from your eyes, as shown in the preview image .

[jimbobur]

I did an internship stimulating MA waste burnup in an ADSR reactor whilst I was an undergrad. Super cool to hear that a company has gotten regulatory approval!

[MartinKaufmann]

I don't like the word waste for something that can be so useful. I prefer Spent Nuclear Fuel, SNF, or Used Nuclear Fuel. Or Nuclear Wundertüte.

[OneWildTurkey]

Sabine has a great skill at presentation. We need a lot more people like her. Skillful, smart and also with a nice sense of humor.

[amanofnoreputation]

Fukushima was a confluence of both corrupt and incompetent management, but also the minor factoid that Japan sits on top of a massive tectonic fault line and is beset on all sides by every form of natural disaster known to man. Even under such adverse conditions, the plant didn't irradiate a single person and the only casualties involved were caused by the disruption of the evacuation effort.

[opexe]

As far as I know, one of the issues with nuclear recycling is that you end up isolating Plutonium, something which makes a lot of countries and governments very antsy, as these are the major component of nuclear weaponry. Thus as much as I'd like for this to happen on a grand scale, I have a hunch it will run into a lot of hurdles on that point.
Personally though I do believe we should get over this fear of "what if people amassed Plutonium!?" because if they have access to nuclear reactors, they can just do so in secret (and a fair few probably already do so), whereas if it's out in the open, it's a lot less likely to be abused for such goals.

[georgH]

Russia has had the BN-600 and BN-800 fast neutron reactors currently operating. The BN 800 started operating on MOX fuel in 2022, and one year later, fueled with uranium, plutonium, americium and neptunium MOX.

They also have the BREST-300 fast reactor being build using nitride fuel and lead coolant. Their goals are to transmutate long lived actinides as well as be more efficient by using most of the U238, which is mostly wasted in other reactors (although some is used in MOX)

A video on fast reactors would be nice 😁

[maximivanov]

Fast neutron reactors have also been proposed as minor actinide burners. Russia has an operational 800 MWe fast reactor (BN-800) and is developing a 1200 MWe one that's supposed to be economically competitive against PWRs. I'm not an expert, but reactors intuitively seem more suitable for large-scale transmutation. There is a reason they produced weapons-grade Pu in reactors rather than accelerators.

[franciscogarciaferre]

Stefano Buono, the third author of the original paper by Rubia, has founded a company called newcleo which intents to use waste as fuel too. In the case of newcleo, Pu is mixed with U to form “MOX” fuel for a reactor cooled by liquid lead

[bazoo]

0:11 - Of course it did. How else could you interpret the fact that there was _one_ person who _maybe_ died as a consequence of the radiation received?

[georgkrahl]

The drawing of the accelerator driven reactor remembers me the MEGAPIE experiment at PSI (besides the direction of the beam). The experiment took a big effort, all these little details, big auxiliary power generators, filling the whole basement with nitrogen, special instructions for the fire brigade etc.

[quantummotion]

Sabine! Thank you for this! Its about time intelligent discussion about thus subject becomes more mainstream, as afterall, radiation is energy, and if radioactive waste gives off energy, how do we take advantage of this?

A couple of things to add. First, this discussion also highlights some of the virtues of the CANDU reactor in Canada. It has the ability to run on natural uranium, plutonium, thorium, and SPENT FUEL from enriched reactors. These are more expensive (because of the heavy water design and fuel while running mechanism) but these extra expenses are offset by no need of enrichment facilities, higher running uptime (again can refuel while running).

The use of a linac/cyclotron for transmutation is certainly interesting. Indeed, when I was a student at Atomic Energy of Canada at Chalk River, there was a Van de Graaf linac INJECTING into a super conducting cyclotron (liquid helium cooled niobium-titanium wire in the huge magnetic winding) to get a compact but powerful cyclotron. The tandem could accelerate ions to 10MeV per nucleon. Had the waste transmutation idea been developed, the facility would have had another revenue stream, allowed nuclear physics and other experiments to run, and not result in the shutdown of TASSC and the scattering of the amazing talent that put that facility together in the first place.

Also, Sabine, has there been discussion on harvesting the hydrogen that is generated from the hydrolysis that happens due to the radiation from spent fuel rods? I mean, if high level nuclear waste could be gathered together in one spot, place in a pool of water, then the oxygen and hydrogen from the hydrolysis gathered, I wonder if this could be a cheap and easy way to get hydrogen fuel kickstarted? The oxygen has industrial utility too, so generated products that can be sold.

Thanks again for bringing up this subject. This is the kind of thing that can solve MULTIPLE problems - getting more energy, reducing waste, and keep basic nuclear research going.

[removechan]

Your short punchy videos with good info are fantastic, and your deep thinking videos about where we're going are also fantastic.
Some of the best videos on youtube are your videos.

[collectorguy]

People make a big fuss that nuclear waste is harmful for 100, 000 years. That's a long time, but we have vastly more waste that stays harmful forever. Mining produces a lot of toxic waste products that have no value, and it's typically stored as a slurry held back by an earthen embankment dam, known as a tailings dam. There are thousands of them, they're massive, poorly documented, and tend to fail 2 orders of magnitude more often than water dams.

[lernwithreynald]

Can’t wait for the “how to sell nuclear waste to aliens” video

[iliaponomarev]

> What do we do with nuclear waste?
Vitrify it, shape it into something that's a good heat exchanger, put it underground, and use the heat it produces to heat water to make tea.
Or, well, feed central heating.

[philipgotthelf]

Sidney Levy, author of the Plastics Engineering Handbook, created an electro-active polymer that emitted electrons when exposed to ionizing radiation. He was trying to make a more efficient solar cell, but ended up with a way to generate electricity from nuclear waste radiation. The power conversion was stunning. Even equally impressive, the polymer was very resilient and did not become radioactive from the exposure. Effectively, he created the equivalent of a solar panel that used gamma and neutrons instead of light. His problem was that he couldn’t get his hands on nuclear waste to further his process. He used “proxies” to prove his process. One source of radiation was generated by a Tesla bulb made from a unique crystal material. Making cool stuff was what he did.

[billraymond]

Thank you Sabine for your comments on Fukushima and nuclear power! Keep speaking the truth!!!!

Bill Raymond
Nuclear Physicist
50 year career in nuclear energy.