Nuclear Waste: Fission Products & Transuranics from Thorium & Uranium - "Th" Documentary
Channel: gordonmcdowell
Date: 2013-09-23

http://thoriumremix.com Today's nuclear reactors can not completely fission their uranium oxide fuel rods, nor fission the transuranics produced during power generation. This waste stream is examined, and compared to that of a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (Th-MSR) in which solid fuel rods are avoided entirely.

In a molten salt reactor, transuranics are not created at all. And the fission products can be partitioned, thanks to the fuel being in liquid form. This avoids the challenge of fission poisons appearing inside the solid uranium oxide fuel rods.

Nuclear waste is only "waste" because it has not been separated. United State's 70,000 tonnes of nuclear waste is in a particularly difficult form for reprocessing... it is in solid form, trapped in fuel rods.

As today's nuclear industry looks to build more durable fuel rods (to withstand higher temperatures, xenon gas, and not react with water), the flip side is spent fuel will be trapped in tougher-and-tougher enclosures. This does not bode well for recycling. Instead, dissolving the fuel in molten salt offers both improved reactor safety AND easier recycling of fission products.

Sampled Materials:

Pantry photo: http://intentionallykatie.blogspot.ca/2010/09/another-pantry-makeover-how-it-can-look.html

Irradiating Vegetables: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bazQAZ1at3M

NASA Dawn: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jObKH4Pa7ac

"Nuclear Waste" is chapter 7 of a documentary called "Th", about the element Thorium. The entire documentary can be found at...  http://thoriumremix.com/th/

"Th07" is "Th" thorium documentary Part 7, iteration v418.