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A Possible New Method for Nuclear Power Waste to be Made Safer

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday May 05 2020, @05:17AM   
from the Not-in-my-back-yard dept.

Kitsune008 writes:

One of the issues involving nuclear power has been what to do with the waste materials. What if there was a way to not only convert the problematic materials into a safer storage form, but also enable that same storage form to be used as fuel in newer nuclear power generators? Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?
That may have changed:
https://phys.org/news/2020-05-reveals-single-step-strategy-recycling-nuclear.html

I would prefer more 'green' sources of energy production, but this is something that may be useful to help that along, making coal and petroleum energy production a part of history.

Journal Reference
Jeffrey D. Einkauf, Jonathan D. Burns. Recovery of Oxidized Actinides, Np(VI), Pu(VI), and Am(VI), from Cocrystallized Uranyl Nitrate Hexahydrate: A Single Technology Approach to Used Nuclear Fuel Recycling, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c00381)

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Original Submission

• Paranoid laws hamstring research (Score: 3, Insightful) by mobydisk on Tuesday May 05 2020, @06:49PM

  by mobydisk (5472) on Tuesday May 05 2020, @06:49PM (#990812)

  Scientists have had some success with separating uranium, plutonium and neptunium. However, these methods have been very complex and have had limited success at separating americium. Furthermore, Burns said that the United States Department of Energy requires the recycling strategy to be proliferation-resistant, meaning that plutonium, which can be used in weapons, must never be separated from other nuclear fuel elements during the recycling process.

  This paranoid vastly out-of-date requirement dates back to the 1960's when nuclear was a scary boogeyman and Americans thought that people who wore red were communists out to steal our nuclear technology. If we eliminate this stupid law then we are a major step closer to solving the nuclear waste problem. Politics is interfering with science and energy policy. (Plutonium is ~1% of the waste.)

  Starting Score:	1		point
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