Giant Laser Transmutes Nuclear Waste

paulnuyu writes "NewScientist is reporting that scientists have transmuted nuclear waste with the Vulcan Glass Laser, cutting iodine-129's half-life from 15.7 million years down to just 25 minutes (as iodine-128). The advance is remarkable, but not practical: the laser would need power from a number of power plants to transmute the waste produced from just one nuclear plant."

Comments

Re:A more interesting problem than iodine ..

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry, but your post contains many technical inaccuracies. Here they are, with brief commentary, in no particular order.

1. Japan has only one fast breeder reactor, Monju... an experimental design.
2. All of the recently constructed reactors in Japan are Light Water Reactors, either pressurized (PWR) or boiling (BWR).
3. ALL reactors fueled with uranium produce plutonium... and since the plutonium is in the core, some of it gets burned (and destroyed) by fission, contributing to the energy released by the fuel.
4. If we have excess plutonium available, we can use it to make fuel for reactors... it will be mixed with uranium dioxide to make mixed oxide fuel (MOX).
5. The difference betweeen a breeder and a non-breeder is the conversion ratio attainable. In non-breeders, the value is less than 1. In breeders, the value is greater than 1. A value of exactly 1 implies that for every atom of fuel fissioned, one new atom of fuel is created by transmutation of fertile material (i.e., U-238).
6. The ONLY reason to build a breeder with high conversion ratio is to produce excess plutonium for use in non-breeders.
7. Breeding is possible in light water reactors. This was demonstrated at Shippingport, PA. The conversion ratio is not high, but it is definitely greater than 1.
8. ALL reactors, whether breeder or non-breeder, produce wastes, including iodine.
9. The feature that distinguishes nuclear power is the energy density of the fuel, and the corresponding small volume of waste relative to amount of energy generated.
10. All spent fuel is not waste. Typically, about 95% of nuclear waste is just U-238... which just happens to be a fertile material perfect for creating plutonium in a breeder reactor.
11. A closed nuclear fuel cycle, in which breeder and non-breeder reactors are used and fuel reprocessing is allowed, achieves the highest possible utilization of fuel.
12. The closed fuel cycle is the holy grail of nuclear power. Even so, there would be waste products to eliminate.
13. Another method proposed for elimination of such waste is accelerator transmutation.
14. ANY method of reducing the toxicity of this waste is a welcome addition to the technological toolbox.

In summary... we know what to do with the plutonium (burn it as fuel). All reactors produce iodine, cesium, barium, krypton, xenon, lanthanum, etc. The volume of these waste products is small, but any method that can reduce the toxicity is desirable.