Nuclear waste could be a game-changer for unlimited power — Watts?

What is called nuclear waste today is only rarely used nuclear fuel because only about 3% of its potential has been realized before it is classified as “waste”. So, we're burying fuels that still have 97% of their power-generating potential that has not yet been realized.

Here's an energy analogy:

• Imagine if America's policy was that if you filled the tank, your car could only go twenty miles, and then you had to empty the tank and store the remaining gasoline in a certified container, permanently buried in the ground, and Privileges pay extra. It doesn't sound like this policy is good for American citizens. It might even prompt you to protest loudly and fire any leaders who impose themselves on you. Well, that's the policy we're following today in harnessing some of the potential of nuclear reactor fuel.

For more than 70 years, nuclear power has provided France, the U.S. Navy and other countries around the world with the safest, emission-free, most reliable and cheapest electricity available today.

We pay huge government subsidies for wind and solar to produce occasional electricity based on favorable weather conditions, and much smaller subsidies for coal, natural gas and nuclear to produce continuous, uninterrupted and dispatchable electricity.

Regarding nuclear power, our government has been working hard to fulfill its responsibility to “dispose” our “nuclear waste” for nearly 45 years. Since this fuel only realizes about 3% of its electricity potential, we call it lightly used nuclear fuel (Sun Fund).

Today, we are at the zenith of revolutionary innovation in electricity production, an innovation that has been hindered only by the federal government.

It turns out that the most efficient technology for generating electricity is one called “fast reactor recycling” or “fast breeder reactor”. If you need more technical terms, one design is called a “molten salt reactor.” Surprisingly, this technology existed long before current light water reactor technology existed, but political factors prompted a shift to less efficient light water reactor technology. Again, to be fair, LWRs work well, produce electricity at extremely low cost, and have the best industrial safety record in the United States. But if we can do better, why not?

Since early light water reactors had large amounts of uranium available, it was thought that we would not have to recycle nuclear fuel after we had used only 3% of the available potential. This leaves a thorny question: “What happens to the rest of SUNF”? The smartest people in our government can only think: “Why not bury it underground?”

Well, in the late 1970s, burying that slightly used fuel sounded good, so our President Jimmy Carter instituted an executive proclamation banning the recycling of our SUNF. That being the case, this is the rule.

SUNF material is collected at nuclear facilities across the United States. Again, to be fair, the material is compact, strong, and very safe to store, so this solution seems fine until the next generation can try something better. But no generation has done so.

The promise of nuclear power generation was fulfilled, and President Ronald Reagan repealed the SUNF recycling ban in 1982.

“Let's bury SUNF” launched a resistance. The pesky states' rights constitutional question crops up, and no state will “agree to accept” this stuff, despite federal law ordering them to do so (well, to be fair, ordering Nevada to accept it). Like anything imposed on anyone, it was met with fierce resistance. Although federal law remains in effect, states' rights ultimately prevailed, and Nevada continues to successfully deny the material to this day. So much for Big Brother's bullying stick.

Today, we have accumulated about 90,000 tons (a volume that would fit into a large building the size of a Walmart store). However, the federal government still has not come up with a “burial” solution.

• Storage: There is enough SUNF stored to power the entire United States for centuries to come, and enough depleted uranium stored to power the entire United States today for thousands of years.
• Production: Additionally, existing nuclear power plants (which only provide electricity to about 20% of the United States) produce more SUNF annually than the amount of SUNF produced from fast reactors is needed to power the entire United States. We will never catch up with fast reactors unless we shut down existing nuclear power plants

The technology exists today (remember, since the late 1940s) to essentially fission 97% of all remaining fuel. This means (rounded down) that SUNF can generate 30 times more power (with a little use, right?). Even better, we have a private capital firm with readily available technology. At 10 cents per kilowatt hour (no one can get electricity that cheap anymore), the material in our reactors is now worth $100 trillion.

• Yes, that's three times our national debt. The equivalent of $300,000 per person in the United States.
• Enough to meet the current needs of the United States for 270 years.

Nuclear reactors around the world have been operating normally for 70 years without anyone being injured or killed. Nuclear power supplies 10% of our global electricity, and it is continuous, uninterrupted, dispatchable and has zero emissions. Nuclear power has a small land area compared to wind and solar power, which can only generate power occasionally during favorable weather conditions.

Chernobyl was not an accident in the normal operation of the nuclear reactor, as all safety measures were deliberately broken to allow the accident to occur. Calling it an “accident” is misleading.

Today, nuclear waste is the key to unlimited power because of “so-called nuclear waste,” lightly used nuclear fuel (SUNF) 97% of electricity potential remains untapped.

Please share this message with teachers, students, and friends to encourage energy literacy conversations at the family dinner table.

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