Reducing Nuclear Waste
January 31st, 2009 by ComputerBob
When I was a little kid, nuclear reactors were a relatively new, futuristic technology. “Our energy future.”
But in my teen years, I remember thinking, “Waste from nuclear reactors will be dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. How can anyone possibly claim to be able to store it safely for that long?” It seemed extraordinarily foolish and short-sighted to me that my government was storing it in metal drums, buried at various sites around the country.
In fact, the safe storage of nuclear waste has always been a big concern of those who oppose the building of nuclear power plants.
But now, scientists have developed a nuclear fusion-fission process that could possibly reduce the amount of radioactive nuclear waste by 95%, while using it to generate more power.
If their method proves to be viable — and I sincerely hope that it will — it could mean a giant leap forward for the use of nuclear power plants.
And our energy future.
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