this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
530 points (96.5% liked)
Technology
58942 readers
3438 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Ah. So intentional then. You're trying to pretend extracting the <0.7% left over U235 and Pu239 (for a 10-15% increase in U235 fuel economy) is somehow fissioning U238.
I don't understand what you're trying to say here. Reprocessed fuel does not imply that we're now fissioning U-238. That takes place in a completely different energy regime (fast fission vs. thermal). Light Water Reactors and fast reactors operate differently, with different fuels. LWRs in commercial operation use slightly enriched U-235. There is no fissioning of U-238 other than the very small amount of spontaneous fission which is negligible compared to contributions from thermal fission in an LWR. The Six Factor formula governs criticality reactions, and these terms differ for both reactor types. The nuclear cross sections are fundamentally different between these energy regimes.
Reprocessed fuel is what it implies, recycled processed LWR fuel, stripped of the fission products that built up as the fuel underwent burnup in the core. If this were some sort of pretend activity then I guess the entire reprocessing back end of the nuclear fuel industry is fake.
I don't appreciate the personal attacks, so if you have nothing constructive to say, good day to you sir slash madam.
You're still trying to spread the "90% of nuclear waste is recyclable" myth, but now you've retreated to the bailey of "getting 10% more energy is technically getting something out of it".
Reprocessing yields a small fraction of leftover fissile material. It is in no way characterisable as recycling.
The strategy is a very boring and tiresome propaganda move that is part of the Duke Energy and Rosatom astroturfing playbook. As is the "who me? I couldn't possibly be slyly trying to imply nuclear waste is actually fuel" act.
They never said that it's 90% recyclable. They said it can be recycled 'to an extent'. You're projecting.