Fuel Recycling Archives - Atomic Insights

Recycling used nuclear fuel – Argonne research explained in 4 min video

Rod Adams · February 22, 2013 · 8 Comments

One of the most frequently used arguments against using nuclear energy is “the waste issue.” When people ask me, “what do you do with the waste”, my standard answer is “recycle it.” The truly curious then ask for more information. A few days ago, Nuclear Street shared a video produced by Argonne National Laboratory that explains their ongoing research into pyroprocessing.

This video was first posted in May, 2012. Even if I have linked to it before, it is worth watching again. It is encouraging to remember that there are plenty of options that enable nuclear energy to have an amazing potential for future improvements by following the adage of “reduce, reuse, and recycle” to shrink an already minuscule quantity of waste per unit of energy to even smaller sizes and easier to handle forms.
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Atomic Show #194 – What do you do with the waste?

Rod Adams · January 7, 2013 · 16 Comments

The first Atomic Show of 2013 is a geeky, chemistry laden discussion aimed at helping to answer the question that many people who fight nuclear energy try to use as their trump card “What do you do with the waste.” It often makes their head spin or makes them put their fingers into their ears [...]

Used Nuclear Fuel Is Not Waste; It Can be Recycled – Argonne Video

Rod Adams · December 19, 2012

The ANS Nuclear Cafe recently posted the above video in a post titled Nuclear Cafe Matinee: Nuclear Recycling in 4 Minutes. It is a useful example of the kind of information that needs to be made more accessible to the public. I hope you share it widely, but more importantly, I hope it inspires you [...]

Plutonium power for the people

Rod Adams · September 11, 2012 · 91 Comments

One of the biggest threats to the continued wealth and power held by the global fossil fuel industry is a “plutonium economy” fueled by abundant resources of uranium that can be converted into fissile plutonium in a breeder reactor. (Yes, I know that a thorium economy is just as big of a threat to the [...]

Transcript of Atomic Show #61 – Allison Macfarlane, Atomic Agnostic (June 15, 2007)

Rod Adams · June 12, 2012 · 22 Comments

On June 13, 2012, Allison Macfarlane will be a witness in her confirmation hearing as a new commissioner and the prospective Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Commissioner Kristine Svinicki will also be a witness in her quest to be confirmed for a second term as a commissioner. In June 2007, I had the opportunity [...]

Pursuing the unlimited energy dream – history of the Integral Fast Reactor

Guest Author · February 8, 2012 · 30 Comments

Note: Len Koch, whose participation in nuclear energy research started in the 1940s, wrote the below open letter to colleagues who are striving to restore interest in the progress that they made in research and development of the Integral Fast Reactor during the period from 1954-1994 the year that President Clinton and Hazel O’Leary, his [...]

TEDx New England – Nuclear entrepreneurs aiming to use waste for fuel

Rod Adams · November 16, 2011 · 17 Comments

Two young graduate students describe their plans to develop something called the Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR). The biggest applause line in the talk was the following: Right now in the world there are about 270,000 metric tons of high level waste that exists. We can take that waste, put it into our reactors [...]

What do you do with the waste? – Kirk Sorensen’s answers

Rod Adams · October 13, 2011 · 7 Comments

Gordon McDowell, the film maker who produced Thorium Remix, has released some additional mixes of material gathered for that production effort. One in particular is aimed at those people whose main concern about using nuclear energy is the often repeated question “What do you do with the waste.” Many people who ask that question think [...]

Responses to BRC on America’s Nuclear Future from fast reactor experts

Rod Adams · September 8, 2011 · 17 Comments

I am a subscriber to a Google group of fast reactor experts and advocates who strongly believe that the Clinton Administration’s decision to eliminate funding for the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) project was an enormous political mistake that has had long term impacts on America’s national security and economic vitality. Recently, two members of the [...]

Update on fast reactor group challenge to MIT

Rod Adams · July 29, 2011 · 25 Comments

Steve Kirsch, an MIT graduate and enough of an entrepreneurial success to have an auditorium at the school that carries his name, has updated his challenge to the faculty at his alma mater in a post on The Huffington Post titled Is MIT Afraid to Debate Nuclear Report?. Steve is quite serious about this challenge [...]

Fast reactor advocates throw down gauntlet to MIT authors

Rod Adams · July 24, 2011 · 35 Comments

Near the end of 2010, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a summary of a report titled The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle as part of its MIT Energy Initiative. The complete report was released a few months ago. The conclusions published that report initiated a virtual firestorm of reaction among the members of [...]

The Atomic Show #118 – Steve Kirsch, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Converted Fan of Integral Fast Reactor (IFR)

Rod Adams · December 10, 2008 · 5 Comments

Two years ago, Steve Kirsch, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist, was sure that the US did not need nuclear power. Now he thinks it can save the planet. Find out what changed his mind. More and more people who are sincerely concerned about the impact that human activity is making on the planet are [...]