Andrew Follett reports that General Atomics has developed nuclear reactor fuel that uses uranium carbide instead of uranium oxide, which is normally used to fuel light water reactors. Helium coolant will make meltdowns impossible, and the fuel could also reduce the amount of used nuclear fuel to be disposed of, according to Christina Back, vice president of nuclear technologies and materials at General Atomics.
Recent technological advancements could turn environmentalists into huge fans of nuclear power, according to a nuclear physicist. Christina Back said her company, General Atomics, has developed a nuclear fuel that can keep advanced nuclear power plants from melting down, which could largely address public fears about expanding the U.S. nuclear fleet.
They are trying to use the nuclear fuel much more efficiently, Back told The Daily Caller News Foundation. They are using uranium carbide not uranium oxide, the typical light water reactor fuel. The design involves consuming that fuel at higher temperature but use a helium coolant instead of water because it does not not react because it is an inert gas. Helium fuel would make a meltdown, like the Fukushima Daiichi reactor meltdown in 2011, impossible, according to Back.
When they keep the fuel in the reactor longer they can burn up the long lived radioactive fission products which results in less nuclear waste, Back said. For the energy multiplier design they can use the used fuel and put it back into the reactor. When they do that, they can get down to 97% less waste and none of it would be the long lived radioactive products. They would not need geological storage.
Nuclear power plants generate power without emitting carbon dioxide (CO2), which is blamed for global warming, but does not suffer from the indeterminacy of wind and solar power. But environmentalists are still not on board with nuclear power because of latent physiological fears of radiation, and of their need for free energy, as they see it.
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