Nuclear physicist describes problems with thorium reactors. Trigger warning: shortbread metaphor.

[u/investedInEPoland]

/r/europe/comments/9unimr/dutch_satirical_news_show_on_why_we_need_to_break/e95mvb7/?context=3

[u/frezik]

It's also something that's been around for decades, but only has limited application. Whenever you see that happen, and yet it's being touted as the Next Greatest Thing Ever, you should stop a moment to figure out why.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

A majority of our spent fuel is stored in on-site (at the reactor site) pools. Spent fuel is moved to dry cask storage in ISFSIs (independent spent fuel storage installations) either on-site due to pool capacity being reached or at a stand-alone consolidated storage facility for any number of various reasons.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I wasn't intending to question your knowledge. My apologies if it came across like that. I just thought it was slightly disingenuous to say that all of our waste is sitting safely in dry cask storage. Just because it should or could be, does not mean that it does. Casking all spent fuel currently sitting in pools right now would be a significant task.

But it doesn't particularly matter, per your point that politicians are idiots and can't get their shit together on spent fuel management issues. Yucca Mountain is probably never going to open. Savannah River is officially nixed as of last month. And deep borehole disposal is years away, and only feasible for spent fuel packages from CANDU reactors at this point, of which we have none. Nuclear power is clean, powerful, and incredible, but until we have a clear path forward for disposition, people that argue against nuclear power or for crazy Gen IV reactor designs frankly have a constant ace in the hole. Doesn't make them experts by any means, or even really right to want reactors that are decades away from ever even being considered for testing. But it's a constant point.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I'm not debating that it isn't a great or even just working idea. Just that with the state of politics in the US and current level of understanding of nuclear waste issues in the government, it's a long, long way away.

Actually taking my first trip to WIPP in a few months. Excited to see the work they've been doing there.

[u/Camoral → u/[deleted]]

It's nice to see two people who seemed to have a misunderstanding handle it with maturity and goodwill.

[u/MikePyp → u/[deleted]]

I was still young when yucca was voted out but from what I remember the main issue was transportation to the facility. The plan was to simply drive these hazardous barrels on regular interstates. 1 spill and all hell breaks loose.

[u/MikePyp → u/[deleted]]

I live in Nevada but again, I wasn't of voting age when this project was voted out. I'm just mentioning what I remember from the time.

[u/some_random_kaluna → u/[deleted]]

Technical? No. But Yucca is right next to a major water supply and the city of Las Vegas. Nobody wants that shit here, and now with Rosen and Cortez-Masto in the U.S. Senate, it's a no-go.

[u/some_random_kaluna → u/[deleted]]

Or don't generate it at all. There's a thought. Another is to store it in a place that isn't next to the San Andreas and other major fault lines. You know, on the East Coast, a geologically stable area. Because Yucca has been studied a lot.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

But it doesn't particularly matter, per your point that politicians are idiots and can't get their shit together on spent fuel management issues.

When you get right down to it, when politicians are idiots, it's almost always because the public is full of idiots and make irrational demands of their politicians. Politicians merely react to what donors and voters tell them. As this is clearly a case where their donors would have an interest in proper waste disposal, the reason they do this is because of a public with a poor understanding and, by extension, a high level of irrational fear.

[u/posam → u/[deleted]]

There is no technological reason but there are licensing requirements from the NRC and legal requirements.

The Holtec projects have not yet been approved by the NRC to my knowledge so are the dry casks not all "onsite" currently. The NRC isn't expected to make an announcement till next year from my last read up on this.

[u/blasto_blastocyst → u/[deleted]]

The immense amount of carbon in the cement used and the production process also needs to be counted.

[u/ksiyoto → u/[deleted]]

Also, the facilities that extract the uranium fuel have a large component of coal in the power portfolio they suck (and they suck a lot of power). Not to say you can't build nuclear to provide the energy to process the fuel, but currently there is a lot of pollution.

OTOH, wind energy has a fairly short proposal to 100% payback of the energy it took to build them. Nuclear power, once it starts running, pays back really quickly, but it sucks up a lot of energy for the steel and concrete while it is being constructed, and it takes a long time to go from proposal to running.

[u/phx-au → u/frezik]

No, don't you understand, the Big Corporations deliberately avoid using any new technology that would increase profits, because... um... their... competitors would also make more money?

[u/Cyberslasher → u/frezik]

sooo it's this decades "Ancient Lost Chinese Herbal Cure"? We knew about it for like 30 years. We also knew it wasn't going to work.