7 ms·

> there will be high level waste that needs to be disposed of Fortunately it is self disposing, decaying away. Unlikely plain old mercury or arsenic.

zer00eyz 2mo ago
The "high level waste" is the stuff that takes 10k years to decay. The big things that you get out of reprocessing nuclear fuel (other than usable uranium) are plutonium, Strontium, cesium ... the rest of the material left over (4%) gets embedded in glass and dumped in a deep pit and forgotten about. The things we might use (plutonium, strontium) have some rather "questionable" applications: https://thedefensepost.com/2026/07/08/darpa-nuclear-waste-drone-battery/ https://thedefensepost.com/2026/07/08/darpa-nuclear-waste-dr... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India–United_States_espionage_on_Nanda_Devi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India–United_States_espionage_...
- chickenbig 2mo ago
  > The "high level waste" is the stuff that takes 10k years to decay. Well, there are many definitions, for instance https://ukinventory.nda.gov.uk/information-hub/factsheets/what-are-the-main-waste-categories/ https://ukinventory.nda.gov.uk/information-hub/factsheets/wh... is from the UK. > The big things that you get out of reprocessing nuclear fuel You generally extract the trans-uranics from fission products. The former needs more specific treatment to deal with their longer half lives (or turning into MOX, which ends up more expensive than using normal uranium). The latter get vitrified (who needs the Sr or Cs, really). > The things we might use (plutonium, strontium) have some rather "questionable" applications: The Pu-238 for the RTG is generally produced in trace quantities in reactors, with reactor grade plutonium containing mostly Pu-239 and Pu-240. I'm not a huge fan of these tiny RTG sources either. Spacecraft yes, otherwise ... proven to be somewhat dangerous when they become orphaned.

zer00eyz 2mo ago

The "high level waste" is the stuff that takes 10k years to decay. The big things that you get out of reprocessing nuclear fuel (other than usable uranium) are plutonium, Strontium, cesium ... the rest of the material left over (4%) gets embedded in glass and dumped in a deep pit and forgotten about. The things we might use (plutonium, strontium) have some rather "questionable" applications: https://thedefensepost.com/2026/07/08/darpa-nuclear-waste-drone-battery/ https://thedefensepost.com/2026/07/08/darpa-nuclear-waste-dr... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India–United_States_espionage_on_Nanda_Devi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India–United_States_espionage_...

chickenbig 2mo ago
> The "high level waste" is the stuff that takes 10k years to decay. Well, there are many definitions, for instance https://ukinventory.nda.gov.uk/information-hub/factsheets/what-are-the-main-waste-categories/ https://ukinventory.nda.gov.uk/information-hub/factsheets/wh... is from the UK. > The big things that you get out of reprocessing nuclear fuel You generally extract the trans-uranics from fission products. The former needs more specific treatment to deal with their longer half lives (or turning into MOX, which ends up more expensive than using normal uranium). The latter get vitrified (who needs the Sr or Cs, really). > The things we might use (plutonium, strontium) have some rather "questionable" applications: The Pu-238 for the RTG is generally produced in trace quantities in reactors, with reactor grade plutonium containing mostly Pu-239 and Pu-240. I'm not a huge fan of these tiny RTG sources either. Spacecraft yes, otherwise ... proven to be somewhat dangerous when they become orphaned.