There are two acceptable storage methods for spent fuel after it is removed
from the reactor core:
Spent Fuel Pools - Currently, most spent nuclear fuel is safely stored in specially designed pools at individual reactor sites around the country.
Dry Cask Storage - If pool capacity is reached, licensees may move toward use of above-ground dry storage casks.
The spent fuel pool is right next to the reactor. About 22 feet below the surface is the tray where the spent nuclear fuel is stored. It is clearly visible. Turns out that water is a great radiation shield, knocking out 90% of radiation for every 2 feet. So 2 feet above the fuel rods, the radiation is reduced to 10%, another 2 feet and the you only have 10% of that 10%, etc. After 22 feet, no detectable radiation whatsoever. Some of it is even glowing a deep blue! Here's a pic of a spent fuel pool I pulled off of Google:
What is most amazing to me is that it's not much bigger than a large swimming pool you find in many neighborhoods, and that is all the nuclear waste at Fermi 2 from over 20 years of operation at 1.1 GW of power! That is simply an unbelievably small amount. It almost seems impossible. Any other source of energy for that kind of power over that kind of time period would literally produce mountains on top of mountains of waste. 
Why any environmentalist would oppose nuclear is beyond me. In fact, if you account for all the energy you will ever use in your lifetime for every purpose - transportation, heating, cooling, recreation, etc - the total nuclear waste produced would not fully fill a standard can of Coke!And yes, it is highly toxic waste. Our guide told us that if you were to jump into the spent fuel pool, take a deep breath and dive under as fast as possible, you would be dead before you ever touched the bottom. Yikes! But here's my thought from an environmental viewpoint. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics demands waste be produced from any process. It's inevitable. The question is, would you want a large volume of uncontrollable but less toxic waste or a very small volume of controllable but highly-toxic waste? I'll go with the latter any day!
What's perhaps even more interesting (at least to me) is that the spent nuclear fuel can be reprocessed, where most of it can be used again. Of course, Jimmy Carter put an end to that back in the 70's. So instead of reusing some of that waste as fuel, it just sits there while new fuel must be excavated and enriched. Thanks a lot, Carter!
No comments:
Post a Comment