Nuclear Waste Is Not Glowing Green Slime… Here’s the Truth (Part 2 of 3)

Some say nuclear energy is the key to solving our energy crisis. Why haven’t we made the switch?

Read More:
Why America abandoned nuclear power (and what we can learn from South Korea)
“We'll need vast amounts of carbon-free energy to stave off global warming. It's not at all clear that renewables can do the job alone. And nuclear is a proven technology, already providing 11 percent of electricity globally.”

Nuclear leak caused by 'wrong type of kitty litter,' confirms government report
“Although this scenario sounds far-fetched, kitty litter has been used to stabilize certain types of nuclear waste for decades. However, only inorganic litter contains the mineral silicates needed for the job.”

On the pros of nuclear power
“What about the global energy problem? What about nuclear? Until we develop new technologies, nuclear power is currently the best alternative to oil.”

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[Seeker]

Hi there! 👋 Wondering why you may be seeing this video twice? Some of you pointed out in the comments that contrary to what was said in our episode, France is technically not "anti-nuclear." We re-uploaded the episode because, while the current French government is deciding how to lean back from their reliance on nuclear means, France is still one of the leading producers of nuclear energy. It was a small error, but we do everything we can to put out accurate videos just for you, so thanks for keeping our feet to the fire, and keep doing what you're doing! 👏 Also, thank you again to Dianna for joining us! - Victoria, Seeker Team

[Admiral]

Things left unmentioned,

1. Nuclear waste profile in total produced from power plants can be measured in the hundreds of thousands of tons. In contrast to the millions/billions of metric tons of pollutants released from the average coal plant per year. In fact in 30 years of operation all of France's Nuclear waste fits under the floor of one room.

2. The didn't mention how the when the waste is stored in their casks, that those casks have been stress tested to such degrees that they would survive a minor apocalypse. The casks have been rammed with locomotives going at a crazy high speed, burned at high temperatures, dropped and all other sorts of insane destructive attempts have been performed, so these things aren't breaking or going anywhere.

3. The "ineffecieny" of nuclear power plants is extremely overstated.While it's true that in power plants only ~3, 4 percent of the "fuel" is used, they didn't bring up enrichment. For power production the enrichment is super low, and as they said, U235 is the preferred fissionable material used. So over 90 percent of unspent fuel is actually relatively inert U238. They also didn't mention that plants don't refuel for anywhere between a year and 18 months per core, which is incredible.

4. He called the WIPP incident a "disaster". That word is intentionally used to spark images and thoughts of things happening at scale that you would think would spell doom or something. A better word would have been incident. When someone gets hurt on a job somewhere its not a disaster its an incident, but apparently if you throw the word nuclear in it its a disaster, a bit of a gross mis-characterization IMO.

5. They didn't mention the specific half-lives of the fission products that come about as a result of nuclear reactions which are typically pretty short. Cesium and Iodine after a few years are orders of magnitude less harmful. Some long lived hot elements that are potentially dangerous actually have other better uses. PU238 for example is whats used in deep space probes.

6. They didn't mention reprocessing. The US is the only large scale producer of Nuclear power that doesn't actively reprocess and doing this can help reduce waste profile, increase fuel utilization efficiency, and provide other revenue flows for certain extractable isotopes used in other processes. (Thank Jimmy Carter for that in the US.)

7. Last thing, not mentioned was the safety record of Nuclear power. Per Watt hour generated Nuclear power is the safest form of energy production ever used by man and a little irrational fear over things not understood should not stop those that DO understand from making the correct decisions.

Thank you seeker for the video, I enjoyed watching it, and I appreciate the fact that there is at least a curiosity in a positive light for this wonderful technology, but please be a little more informative about things when necessary. The info i bring up[ isn't hard to find, its easily google-ble or youtube-able. I recommend checking out the future of Nuclear energy with different kinds of fission reactors such as Molten salt reactors, or looking up Thorium.

Hope this helps

[TommoCarroll]

So much con- _fusion_ over this matter 💥👀

[JustinY.]

So how does godzilla fit into all of this

[sebastianelytron]

I'm a simple man. I see Dianna, I click, I like.

[aritrabiswas]

I think scientists chose to use steam instead of hot winds from burning coal because steam has more mass than air(for a fixed volume) and thus exert more force on the turbine blades

[thetacoguyy]

Blame the Simpsons for how people view nuclear energy.

[ottawahker]

The inorganic kitty litters are zeolites, some kind of minerals, they have small holes in the structures that should be able to trap the radiation particles so that the radiation will diminish over time, organic kitty litters have no these functions.

[byronleblanc]

I thought the same idea about sending our waste to the sun, but then I remembered rockets go boom! Great podcast, you can never go wrong with Physics Girl.

[fractiousfauxpas]

loved this episode. I love radiation, I've always been fascinated with it, or ever since I found out about Chernobyl. I did have a (morbid) fascination with the whole Chernobyl incident because it unearthed this world of radioactivity to me that had always been shroud in (like trace mentioned) mystery. So being as inquisitive as I am I'd hit a bottomless pit of new and amazing technology and physics. Last but not least, I love Dianna. Doesn't everyone wish they had a friend like her? :') She's so infectiously pumped about physics that it really helps engage you and she does make learning a fun experience. We need all teachers to be more like Dianna :)

[Sembazuru]

Grumble. I was late to work this morning because I wrote (what I thought was an insightful) a comment about the "green glow" being wrong. It's blue. Look up Cherenkov radiation. Why did green become the pop-culture color of radioactivity?

Given the title of the video, I thought the color error would be covered.

[csdn]

1:34 - Actually, Trace, that is one way of doing it. Take a look at RTG (RadioThermal Generator) which is used in space craft. In effect, you're putting a rod of Plutonium, or other relatively short lived isotope (in the 10s of thousands of year range) into something that takes the decay and uses the alpha particles to create heat and electricity. Just don't expect to get much in the way of energy (we're taking a few 100 watts to a max of a kilowatt).

[marchismo]

In Geology we use Half-lives of radioactive elements to date rocks. Just like Trace pointed out we need a "flag" to tag the starting point. That tag is a strong mineral that traps the radioactive element inside, so acting as the flag. We use the mineral Zircon in this case. As the crystal grows in the magma chamber it traps in some Uranium that is also floating around in the chamber. Zircon is very sturdy so it locks the uranium in until a mechanical force cracks or breaks the crystal open. Geologists look for unbroken Zircons and they measure how much Uranium isotope there is and how much of its stable isotope (Lead) there is. Knowing the half-life of the Uranium isotope we can then calculate how long that Uranium has been trapped inside the Zircon for, using the ratios of the Uranium and Lead isotopes. The result is the age of formation of the Zircon and therefore we know the age of the magmatic event (technically, the cooling phase of the event).

[KafshakTashtak]

Just to add to coal's polution, coal contains uranium (or maybe other radioactive isotopes), which remain in the fly ash, and is spread to the atmosphere. hence a coal powerplant can cause more radiation hazard over time. But if you remove that Uranium, enrich it, then use it in a nuclear powerplant, you get more energy than burning that coal.

[tcmyoda]

Hm. Nuclear/radioactive material can be used in a nuclear battery that converts alpha, beta, and even gamma radiation into DC electricity.
Coal or charcoal can be gassified with steam to produce coal gas (hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide) which can be burned in a gasoline engine.

[andrewwalker]

I have a couple of corrections for your video. Would have been great if you guys would have done a little more research on this whole subject as I do think its important to talk about with people to try and educate them. But it only works if that information is correct. So, in order here's some corrections to the information in your video.

The radiation isn’t heating up the water. The process of fission heats up the fuel rods which heats up the water.

Radiation is constantly being emitted by radioactive elements and isotopes. It doesn’t take “many many years” for it to emit radiation.

Neutrons will only speed up the decay of fissile material like U-235 or Pu-239 or other fissile elements. Neutrons will transmute other non-fissile elements into other elements and isotopes.

Contamination of a broom or clothing is because of radioactive particles on the broom or clothing…not because that item has become radioactive. Objects only become radioactive if they are bombarded by neutrons and thats only if that object has elements in it that can form radioactive isotopes by being bombarded by neutrons.

Cotten isn’t an element and is made up of organic compounds it doesn’t give off radiation, nor does it have a half-life.

Spontaneous fission and radioactivity aren’t the same thing. Fission occurs when the atom of a U-235 is split by a neutron hitting it. Radiation happens because the element is unstable and emits a small part of itself by alpha, beta or gamma emission until it finds a stable state…this is not fission.

When “things” have been irradiated they don’t become radioactive. If that was the case a lot of the food, like meat, spices and fruit would be radioactive. Gamma radiation is used to preserve food, not just a little radiation…crazy amounts.

New reactor technology can use most of the nuclear fuel and can even use waste from other reactors. A breeder reactor can create its own fuel and that was one of the first reactors designs that was tested.

A coal fire plant produce 300, 000 tons of waste ash and sludge each year. A nuclear power plant generates 20 metric tons each year. Plus the waste coming from a coal fire plant is also radioactive because of the naturaly occurring uranium and thorium in coal that is then concentrated in the ash and smoke.

Half life is usually measured in the radioactivity of an element. Not volume of the material.

The problem with nuclear power is that most people are horrible misinformed about it and the science behind it.

[MoOrion]

Not all those cooling towers are for Nuclear plants. Coal and Natural gas and Diesel plants... any power plant that makes use of hot pressurized steam to spin its turbines needs cooling towers and thus make use of those curved towers just the same as a nuclear plant does.
But if your train was going through France... I think they have the highest percent of their energy coming from Nuclear plants.

[billmorse]

Please talk about the much safer & less expensive types of nuclear power generation? Like "Molten salt reactors" (MSRs) or better yet DMSRs. Demonstrator reactors have been built and operated, but nothing has made it to commercial use...yet.

MSR power generators could make human habitation on the Earth's moon and Mars much more feasible than with just solar power (with battery storage) options alone. Multiple and redundant power sources are needed to provide a solid foundation for safe, long-term human, extra-terrestrial exploration.

[greyareaRK]

Is there nothing better than steam to convert radiation to electrical energy? How do reactors in space vehicles work? Why doesn't that system work on a larger scale?

[Trag-zjyo]

Boiling water to turn a turbine to make electricity. If they could find a gamma volatic cell to create energy directly, they could place them at all the waste storage facilities.