Is Nuclear Power On The Verge Of A Big Comeback?

[hipeter924]

Et tu, Brute?

I'm just saying....in terms of land you have to dedicate for nuclear waste storage.....the difference between 1 milliontons and 100,000 million tons isn't that much more land. That genie is already out of the bottle. We're already commited for the next couple of ice ages. Why not get more benefit out of a cost we have to pay either way?

Actually, there are new reactor designs that solve that problem...they are FUELED by nuclear waste.

Technically yes.

Though Generation IV reactors aren't expected to be ready commercially till the 2030s, even though prototypes exist and have been in operation: Generation IV reactor - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Relative to current nuclear power plant technology, the claimed benefits for 4th generation reactors include:

• Nuclear waste that remains radioactive for a few centuries instead of millennia [17]
• 100-300 times more energy yield from the same amount of nuclear fuel [18]
• Broader range of fuels, and even unencapsulated raw fuels (non-pebble MSR, LFTR).
• In some reactors, the ability to consume existing nuclear waste in the production of electricity, that is, a Closed nuclear fuel cycle. This strengthens the argument to deem nuclear power as renewable energy.
• Improved operating safety features, such as (depending on design) avoidance of pressurized operation, automatic passive (unpowered, uncommanded) reactor shutdown, avoidance of water cooling and the associated risks of loss of water (leaks or boiling) and hydrogen generation/explosion and contamination of coolant water.

Nuclear reactors do not emit CO2 during operation, although like all low carbon power sources, the mining and construction phase can result in CO2 emissions, if energy sources which are not carbon neutral (such as fossil fuels), or CO2 emitting cements are used during the construction process. A 2012 Yale Universityreview published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology analyzing CO2 life cycle assessment (LCA) emissions from nuclear power determined that:[19]

"The collective LCA literature indicates that life cycle GHG [ greenhouse gas ] emissions from nuclear power are only a fraction of traditional fossil sources and comparable to renewable technologies."

 

[there4eyeM]

When people have such limited ideas of aesthetics, security and independence, it is difficult to discuss this issue. So, we will doubtless continue to wander down this dark road until the worst happens.

 

[Skylar]

I don't mean reprocessing spent fuel. I mean new reactors that are fueled by and CONSUME it. They are also passively safe: if they lose cooling, they simply shut down.

Not all of it.

Relative to current nuclear power plant technology, the claimed benefits for 4th generation reactors include:

Nuclear waste that remains radioactive for a few centuries instead of millennia

Generation IV reactor - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

And as the article points out, these are largely theoretical designs. We're gonna have nuclear waste.

 

[there4eyeM]

Nukes are a waste!