So everyone on here pretty much knows almost all about Windmills, solar energy, and Microbial Fuel Cells. They are very promising and efficient technologies and can be used in combination for local grids and market. Great! Now we just need to be able to get rid of that nasty nuclear waste stuff. Now before you start trying to design rockets to the moon read up a bit, and watch this video. The entire thing is interesting, but it REALLY gets cool at about 13:15 or so-
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/bill_gates.htmlIf you watched it then I’m going to repeat him a little but will expand upon it. Wikipedia actually has a good description with-
“A traveling-wave reactor, or TWR, is a kind of nuclear reactor that can convert fertile material into fissile fuel as it runs using the process of nuclear transmutation. TWRs differ from other kinds of fast-neutron and breeder reactors in their ability to use little or no enriched uranium, instead burning fuel made from depleted uranium, natural uranium, thorium, spent fuel removed from light-water reactors, or some combination of these materials. The name refers to the design characteristic that fission does not happen in the entire TWR core, but takes place in a fairly localized zone that advances through the core over time.”
So what does this mean? basically all that used and spent Nuclear material we have just sitting and being annoying while soaking up millions just to safely house this stuff can be put to use again.
Conventional Nuclear Reactors use only about 10% of the material, and it has to go through a special process where it is enriched. This is similar to the process used to create Nuclear weapons. I unfortunately am not a nuclear physicist, and the chances of me getting the process wrong are present, but from what I can understand Enriching uranium increases the proportion of uranium atoms that can be "split" by fission to release energy (usually in the form of heat) that can be used to produce electricity. They just do it to a greater extent for weapons.
The other 90% is just waste, but with a TWR it’s fuel. Plus if you ever ran out of “depleted uranium” the same process can be used with other materials, such as thorium, or even natural uranium. There are even theories that you can set the process up in such a way that after the reactor has used it, you can use the same material again to start up another TWR.
“TWRs are also capable, in principle, of reusing their own fuel. The used metal fuel from TWRs will still contain a high fissile content. Recast and reclad into new driver pellets without separations, this recycled fuel could be used to start fission in additional TWRs, thus displacing the need to enrich uranium altogether.” wikipedia
While that may actually be too far-fetched it is a nice idea. This would also eliminate the need for developing countries to develop enrichment methods for purpose of energy.
This is a link to the guys Bill is supporting.
http://www.intellectualventures.com/docs/terrappower/IV_Introducing...and this is an article with more information and a cool picture.
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/
Bottom Line, Even with all the truly clean and cheap energy possibilities available the prospect of us using our spent nuclear fuel again is a gem. Think about it with the 3 Rs. Reduce nuclear waste in storage, Reuse spent fuel by Recycling!
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