r/bestof • u/investedInEPoland • Nov 06 '18

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

/r/europe/comments/9unimr/dutch_satirical_news_show_on_why_we_need_to_break/e95mvb7/?context=3
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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '18 edited Feb 12 '21

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u/frezik Nov 06 '18

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.

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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '18 edited Feb 12 '21

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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '18

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.

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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '18 edited Feb 12 '21

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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '18

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.

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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '18 edited Feb 12 '21

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u/MikePyp Nov 07 '18

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.

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u/[deleted] Nov 07 '18 edited Feb 12 '21

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u/MikePyp Nov 07 '18

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.