Question by Luke: Nuclear Waste Recycling?
Which is the kind of nuclear reactor that can use the waste from other nuclear plants? I’m thinking it’s fast reactors because they use the plutonium that is produced in most PWR’s used through much of the world. I know it’s not breeders because they produce fuel for other reactors. And also, after this recycling process, approximately how much waste is left over that must be stored?
Best answer:
Answer by Kyle W
It depends on how you reprocess the fuel. Fast reactors can be what is on a closed fuel cycle. That what breeder reactors do… they usually make fuel for themselves.
But you can take the fuel from a PWR (pressurized water reactor) or a BWR (boiling water reactor) and reprocess it as a mixed (U and Pu) oxide fuel or MOX for short. MOX fuel can be used in PWR, BWR, and fast reactors.
A lot of countries are pushing efforts on fast reactors that can also be fueled by other lanthanides and actinides like Np, Am, Cm, Ea,…. Look up the ORIENT fuel cycle or the DOVITA program. I suggest you Google it. DOVITA stuff is a little tricky to find b/c it is just a set of guide lines putting together other technologies to make a fuel cycle for fast reactors to run on actinides.
Some of these fission products spontaneously fission or grab up neutrons in PWRs or BWRs or thermal reactors by making them fun less efficient. If these advanced fuel cycles are used, then we can reduce spent fuel waste to the lighter isotopes like Sr-90, Cs-137,… this will decrease storage time form a thousands to millions of years to only 300 years.
It is possible we just need to do more R&D to implement it on a large scale. An some of these newer reactors need better materials.
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