Finally We Can Move On The Disposal Of Our Nuclear Waste

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 03/30/15

Dr. Conca reports that we might actually make a move that brings us closer to the disposal of nuclear waste than ever before. Give each of the two main types of nuclear waste weapons and power their own deep geologic repository. Last week, President Obama authorized the Energy Department to move forward with a plan for a separate repository for high-level radioactive waste that was created from making atomic and nuclear weapons. Immediately, Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz announced what we have been wanting for decades a separate deep geologic nuclear waste repository for our defense-generated high-level nuclear waste - HLW, separate from one for our spent nuclear fuel- SNF - from commercial power reactors - DOE Path Forward. HLW is bomb waste. Weapons waste. Very different from commercial SNF which is not really waste at all. Different in form weapons waste is in various hard-to-handle forms; gunky, sludgy, nasty liquid, some solid as opposed to dry, solid commercial spent fuel that is easy to handle and easy to store in dry casks once it is removed from the cooling pools after about 5 years. Different in composition and types of radioactive and chemical components SNF is primarily uranium oxide with some fission products and actinide elements produced from the fission process, but no toxic chemicals. HLW is chemically-reprocessed fuel so has residual fission products and actinide elements but lots and lots of toxic chemicals and metals used in the reprocessing. Different in geographic location HLW is in a relatively few locations at DOE sites like Hanford and Savannah River, while SNF is at all commercial nuclear power sites in 32 states. Different in usefulness HLW is from reprocessing of weapons reactor fuel and is totally waste, and of no further use. But SNF is quite useful only about 5 per cent of the energy contained in SNF is used after the first burning. The fuel can be recycled, but is even better saved to use later.