Nuclear waste is not the problem you've been made to believe it is

How much nuclear waste is there, how dangerous is it, what can we do with it? Today we look into nuclear waste disposal and nuclear waste recycling.

The website that lets you calculate the radiation dose from uranium is here:

Numbers about the amount of nuclear waste are from here:

The recent study about nuclear waste from small modular reactors is here:

The 1984 study about how to build a final deposit site is here:

The 1993 Report from Sandia Lab is here:

More about the recycling in La Hague here:

The report with the comparison of different nuclear fuel cycles is this:

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00:00 Intro
01:26 How Much Waste and What Type?
07:26 What Happens to Nuclear Waste?
10:38 Nuclear Waste Storage
16:05 Nuclear Waste Recycling
20:29 Summary

[boozejunky]

"And pray that shit dilutes quickly", oh God that is why I love you Sabine. You've solidified my opinion on the subject thank you so much.

[ExPsy]

"Think of fuel rods like world leaders, but a bit more reliable".

SHOTS FIRED!

[klamser]

Yucca Mountain was abandoned not because of local opposition, but because it is part of a volcanic area made up of tuff, a volcanic mineral. It was abandoned because of the high probability of a recent volcanic eruption.
Not only U235&238, Pu238 to 242 are isotopes to consider: Over 100 other isotopes exist due to radioactive decay networks, and most of the decay produces Helium4, which induces gas pressure in the containers. The He4 2+ radicals due to alpha decay are emitted at a speed of about 5% of the speed of light and cause fatal damage to cells if the decay takes place in alveoli or between intestinal villus. The high risk of lethal injury from alpha decay can be understood if one knows that the conversion factor to convert the decay energy from Gray (the energy the decay induces in a calorie meter) to Sievers (the biological impact factor of a decay particle) can be up to 70 (20 for the alpha decay itself and a linear function for the maximum impact as a function of the depth of impact in the biological tissue): German StrlSchV Annex 18 C and D). In the short term, about 10% of the heavy metal is emitted as He4! This He4 has the second highest gas constant after hydrogen (2077 J/(kg K)) and will crack the containers due to the high temperature caused by the decay.
Hansen and Leigh "Salt Disposal of Heat-Generating Nuclear Waste" say that in one example calculation the temperature rises by about 400°C, making such a facility impossible to manage.
Other scientists say this will happen (see the video on Pu by the Nottingham University professor). The bentonite that will be placed around the containers will also expand due to the humidity in the natural environment and will create cracks in the deposit for the emitted isotopes to escape from the cracked containers into the biosphere.

I do not see the real problems being presented to the public by this video. Funny (or not) jokes cannot hide the real problems!

[zeehero]

The biggest dissapointing fact about nuclear waste, is that eating it won't give me superpowers.

[euchiron]

The dry storage has nothing on the dryness of your humour and I love it ❤️

[coiledspringofapathy]

Ah, straight laced German humour with efficient scientific delivery. Love it. Subscribed

[wealthychef]

Sabine, you are absolutely my favorite physicist. From fora where you dispute multiverses to discussions of various topics on high energy particle physics and other esoteric subjects, you make things clear and relatively easy to understand. Thank you.

[bobblock-vkje]

I love your dry humor 🙂 "Don't eat used fuel rods" and "all the passengers would be dead"

[heckinbasedandinkpilledoct]

“Please, do not eat used nuclear fuel rods”. Thanks for the heads up 🙌

[ChrisBoland]

I love how you sneak physics into your comedy routines.

[davidhand]

I can personally testify that the vast majority (I guess 90%) is not that bad. I used to work at an environmental analytical lab, and we got weekly samples of effluent and reaction slurry to run tests on, which I conducted myself. The effluent doesn't even register on the Geiger counter if you don't integrate over a day or two. I wouldn't use it to make coffee every day, but I'd rather take a bath in it than spend a day on the beach without sunscreen. The slurry had detectable radiation and other hazardous properties (BOD for example, but not as much as a blenderized sandwich after a warm day). Even that, though, the storage and waste protocols were a tad overkill in that they needlessly turned equipment and materials into low grade waste, which were in fact safe to just throw away.

If I contrast those samples with the _other_ samples I came across, there is no contest about which is more dangerous. It's the industrial and mining byproducts, by far. My workload was dominated by cyanides, [C/N]BOD, MBAS (surfactants), and flashpoints, so the big alarm bell is the cyanides. Cyanide is used in some mining and refining processes to chelate certain metal ions, and just a few grams of the solid waste products will kill you dead at several meters away under acidic conditions. They had to be diluted thousands of times just to get a result on our analytical curve, and I ended up just throwing the glassware it touched away. Distilling those samples was scary af. We called it "glass candy" because it kinda looked like chocolate fudge with shards of iridescent glass all through it, and I hope I never see it again.

[michaeldetlefsen]

You are my favorite physicist by far on YouTube, the most genuine. What I don't understand, when people talk about the cost of a nuclear plant, is why the storage cost of nuclear waste is never included.

[MarianoCustiel]

I couldn't help but laugh out loud with "the higher 3% are the most toxic". Please keep adding this hidden gems while sharing these very interesting topics with us.

[adrianjanssens]

"Even Keith Richard won't be around by then." Thanks for the smile.

[Tidwillshare]

The evolution of Sabine's humor has been one of the best things science youtube ever produced.

[wasd____]

"I'd say it kind of works like a water mill, just a little more dangerous."
I'm gonna call you on that one. If you compare the fatalities from nuclear power plants vs. the fatalities from actual water mills (hydroelectric or hydromechanical power in all its forms), I'm pretty sure the nuclear plants are safer.

[Psychx_]

"typically it's every 3-8 years. Think of fuel rods like world leaders, but a bit more reliable"
"it's similar to wealth distribution, the highest 3% are the most toxic"
"I really love how they assume that in 100, 000 years everyone alive will be a complete idiot"
Sabine, dein Humor ist bei Zeiten ausgesprochen böse. Das gefällt mir sehr!

[dammitdan]

Keith Richards was asked in the 80's how he felt about his public image as "walking death, " and that only he and cockroaches would be alive after a nuclear holocaust. Without hesitation he responded, "I would need something to eat wouldn't I." He's still alive today.

[ians]

Came for the nuclear waste education, stayed for the jokes.

[IsoYear]

I think the concept that is often misunderstood is that it is ultra heavy and dense. so while it does seem like a lot of waste it is contained in a much smaller volume than you would expect