Maybe we should do more research on turning these hazardous products into safer, more stable substances. I’m no nuclear engineer, but it looks like the primary method is bombarding the isotopes with neutrons. How much energy does that take compared to the energy generated by the reactor?
A reactor whose main purpose is to destroy actinides rather than increasing fissile fuel-stocks is sometimes known as a burner reactor. Both breeding and burning depend on good neutron economy, and many designs can do either. Breeding designs surround the core by a breeding blanket of fertile material. Waste burners surround the core with non-fertile wastes to be destroyed. Some designs add neutron reflectors or absorbers.
Fusion power, if ever realized, also has a high neutron flux at a high neutron temperature, though it faces the same issue of “in the short term, it’s more expensive than just storing waste in a hole”
It’s a good goal, but last I heard we were very far off from that being economical compared to just throwing it in a hole forever (which is honestly pretty expensive).
If the problem is economic in nature then the solution is to change the system of economics until it fits material reality, not wait until material reality can fit into our arbitrary system of economics. I’m so sick of “economically viable” being the limiting factor to societal progress.
Man, shit gets really expensive sometimes. We can wish with all of our hearts that medicine, chemistry, physics, etc. get more viable, but that isn’t how it works.
Not all things are expensive on a whim. Some things just use massive amounts of material, energy and work hours to be produced. I cannot just stop paying miners their already too low wages. I also cannot take energy for free. It is not like we have all minerals and energy in abundance and have automated the crap out of every production chain.
Miss me with this “capitalist realism” take. Money doesn’t make things happen. We can restructure our economic system to not be in a stranglehold of arbitrary monetary value. In our current system that conflates monetary value with material value yes, things are expensive due to whims, specifically the whims of the owning class.
There are other incentives for why people labor than just getting paid.
Because during my studies in conservation, the only barrier of “expensive” is monetary cost which is entirely societal systems of arbitrary monetary value which has nothing to do with the actual material or labor costs.
Is it actually a burden on society or simply a burden on the interests of private industry?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transmutation
Maybe we should do more research on turning these hazardous products into safer, more stable substances. I’m no nuclear engineer, but it looks like the primary method is bombarding the isotopes with neutrons. How much energy does that take compared to the energy generated by the reactor?
There’s a word for that: a nuclear reactor!
You may be interested in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor
Fusion power, if ever realized, also has a high neutron flux at a high neutron temperature, though it faces the same issue of “in the short term, it’s more expensive than just storing waste in a hole”
It’s a good goal, but last I heard we were very far off from that being economical compared to just throwing it in a hole forever (which is honestly pretty expensive).
If the problem is economic in nature then the solution is to change the system of economics until it fits material reality, not wait until material reality can fit into our arbitrary system of economics. I’m so sick of “economically viable” being the limiting factor to societal progress.
Man, shit gets really expensive sometimes. We can wish with all of our hearts that medicine, chemistry, physics, etc. get more viable, but that isn’t how it works.
Things are only “expensive” because of our arbitrarily designed system of economics. Money is fake. We can change the rules to fit material reality.
We don’t need the science to become viable, we need to change our rules of society to make the science accessible.
Not all things are expensive on a whim. Some things just use massive amounts of material, energy and work hours to be produced. I cannot just stop paying miners their already too low wages. I also cannot take energy for free. It is not like we have all minerals and energy in abundance and have automated the crap out of every production chain.
Miss me with this “capitalist realism” take. Money doesn’t make things happen. We can restructure our economic system to not be in a stranglehold of arbitrary monetary value. In our current system that conflates monetary value with material value yes, things are expensive due to whims, specifically the whims of the owning class.
There are other incentives for why people labor than just getting paid.
maybe nuclear energy isnt part of sociatal progress.
Don’t see any reasons why it can’t and plenty of reasons why it should.
Too expensive and thus a too heavy burden on society while much cheaper alternatives exist.
“expensive”
How? In what terms?
Because during my studies in conservation, the only barrier of “expensive” is monetary cost which is entirely societal systems of arbitrary monetary value which has nothing to do with the actual material or labor costs.
Is it actually a burden on society or simply a burden on the interests of private industry?