Used Nuclear Fuel is Fuel, Not Waste
Labels Are Important
Dr. James Conca has persuaded me to reject the “waste” label.
✅Used Nuclear Fuel
🚫Spent Nuclear Fuel
🚫High Level Waste
Part 1:
Used Nuclear Fuel, part 2 (5% is not very used - these uranium fuel pellets are fuel).
Used Nuclear Fuel, Part 3
Solid. Heavy. Self-Contained. No possible release. No possible exposure pathway. Inherently safe.
It's a million times easier to measure radiation than to measure elements or chemicals based on laboratory testing. That makes radiation seem scary but it's not. It takes far more radiation exposure than I imagined to cause harm.
The Two Lies that Killed Nuclear PowerWe have been fed two lies about nuclear electricity by the nuclear power establishment. The Teeny Weeny Lie The probability of a sizable release of radioactive material from a nuclear power plant is s…https://open.substack.com/pub/jackdevanney/p/the-two-lies-that-killed-nuclear?r=1rapbo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Future Fuel - Uranium is Abundant
Used Nuclear Fuel is not waste. It still has over 90% fissile-fissionable thermal value. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will use it up and be grateful that we saved them the trouble of mining more uranium.
The biggest problem with used fuel is economic. New uranium is so abundant that it costs more to reprocess used fuel than to make new fuel pellets from uranium. This is actually a good problem. Uranium fuel is abundant. The more we look, the more we find. Thorium is even more abundant. Eventually, we will figure out the economics of re-burning spent fuel. Until then, safely storing metallic, solid, stable fuel pellets causes no harm.
The regulatory and financial programs around the storage of used nuclear fuel are robust and effective. People are prone to overlook regulatory programs. Here is some more context foe what Dr. Conca is explaining in these three videos.
We like to say we can engineer our way to safely and effectively manage risk associated with partially-used nuclear fuel. We’ve proven that for decades.
But there is no engineering fix to wind/solar intermittency. And no, building 3-4 times the necessary capacity for spinning green crucifixes and sun catchers and battery storage to account for capacity factors isn’t a “fix” for that problem.
Actually, it is the perfect fuel for a sodium fast reactor (SFR).