Can Nuclear Waste Ever Be Solved? Yes.

One detail left out is that after only 10.000 years, the waste’s radioactivity is back to that of the original ore that was extracted. Which then raises the question of whether it is fair to require isolation for a million years. Especially when unbeknownst to most, there already are (hundreds of) thousands of tons of uranium and other unstable isotopes beneath our feet in as small a radius as 10 kilometers down to the several 100s of meters of depth that we want our deep geological respository to be. But considering the negligible cost per kilowatt-hour, the price of buying just a feeling of safety for the general public to gain their acceptance for the technology is a fair trade-off.

Use it in breeder reactors.

Great video, thanks from France ! I recognised some of the nuclear plants used in this video, as I worked in those. I'll share this with my colleagues to raise awareness among the public.

please make a video about the forgotten soviet nuclear project. 1. the Soviet Union's plan to produce 50% of nuclear energy by the year 2000 2.such as a special nuclear reactor for water distillation (BN-350) 3.rectangular nuclear reactor (RBMKP-2400) 4. construction of nuclear reactors in remote, and dangerous areas (Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant EGP-6) 5.floating nuclear power plant (Academic Lomonosov) 6.construction plan AST-500 nuclear reactor.which aims to produce hot water for housing and industry. Soviet plant to built in 35 cities to replacing coal-fired central water heaters 7.the world's only active nuclear powered cargo ship (Sevmorput)

Great video but a couple things to point out. About those advanced reactors or Fast reactors, it's not the coolant but the lack of a moderator that distinguishes them. The reason a water cooled reactor can't be a fast reactor is water is also a moderator. So you could have a lead or salt cooled reactor moderated with graphite or heavy water. It's also not exactly correct that fast reactors are more efficient. They consume their fuel more quickly but they use up the fuel more completly to the point they don't leave long lived high level waste. There is still some waste but it's much shorter lived. That's why Deep Isolation is working with Oklo. Oklo has a fast microreactor & is also handling the DoE's current recycling project. The idea being any leftovers can be buried in Deep Isolation borehole repositories. Thankfully it's no longer illegal to recycle used fuel but due to expense & politics it hasn't been done in the US. Recycled fuel like MOX does cost more & natural uranium is cheap so some kind of incentive to use recycled fuel would be helpful. Russia's BN-800 was loaded with recycled fuel last year which is huge although the war in Ukraine has made it harder to get info on.

Great video with good joke at the beginning, he almost got me :) My country used to export high level waste to Russia until politicians decided doing nothing is better than paying very low Russian prices in 90's. I would add Russia did reprocess spent fuel at Mayak years before BN-800 went critical, finding exact timelines in texts saturated with reports about accidents turned to be impossible for me. If USA is really, really serious about building fast reactor this time (we know the story about Gates's promises for msr, then "cigarette with digitally aided reshuffling", two name changes for what is 50 years old fast breeder tech, etc), we should stop burying precious spent fuel because 97% reduction in waste due to reprocessing in this type of reactors would pretty much make problem go away. Low and mid level waste can be stored in my garden, they are welcome.

Great video. Very informative and very well put together.

Bro i really think Finland is doing a really good job. This underground storage will definitely solved the nuclear waste problem.

Very well put. Thank you for including reprocessing - the point often gets missed.

Canada's heavy water moderated CANDU can use natural U, Pu, and Th as well as spent fuel. On top of that, it can REFUEL WHILE RUNNING. China actually purchased a CANDU to take waste from their other reactors, without worry of further nuclear proliferation concerns. CANDU reactor designs have been around since 1974. They provide 50% all the electrical power of Canada's largest province (Ontario) which is where 40% of Canada's GDP is generated.

Perfect video. Thanks! Can you also make a video about potential 4gen reactors like the Molten Salt Reactors and how they could "eat" the waste from the current reactors?

One other reprocessing option is Moltex's WATSS system which should be much cheaper and prevents proliferation concerns since the transuranics are never separated from the Pu.

Almost every city has multiple tanks storing volatile fuel, and stores shelves filled with dangerous chemicals, and people do not worry about those things, unlike they do about nuclear waste! Nuclear waste is dangerous, but so is a lot of other stuff, that is arguably more dangerous!

Good job putting nuclear waste into context against coal fired power plants. So much less waste from nuclear plants and, as you said, we have control over where it goes.

thank you for this beacon of sanity regarding nuclear power! much appreciated!

This is the lesson everyone needs to learn.Thank you!

Instead of air cooling the dry casts, they could heat water for home heating. Or nuclear waste could be used as atomic batteries.

Hey, really great video, I really want to get more into the topic of nuclear energy and wanted to ask if you could recommend some good books or other information sources? Should be quite recent, not too technical and should cover both reactor designs and the correct state of the industry and (geo)politics around it.

Which fission products or transuranics are actually not usable in any way?

Good informative work! It is rare situation to have, when not doing anything with waste material is actually quite good solution (it wouldn't be truth with many chemical waste materials, massive coal ash heaps etc). There is no hurry, HLW is getting safer with every passing year (less heat generated, so only easier to deal with in the future).