Nuclear waste is reusable. Why aren’t we doing it?

#climatechange #waste #diyideas

A nuclear fuel rod is used for 3-6 years. After that, it’s taken out of the reactor and then continues to stay radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. Talk about inefficiency. But French nuclear fuel company ORANO is one of the very few companies recycling nuclear fuel on a commercial scale – and has led this field for decades. We went there to find out why.

Different spent fuel management strategies, International Atomic Energy Agency:
https://www.iaea.org/topics/spent-fue...

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:04 Nuclear power in France
1:57 Step 1: Fuel removal
3:57 Step 2: Cooling
5:09 How does nuclear energy work?
6:40 Step 3: Separation
7:44 The plutonium problem
9:36 Step 4: Vitrification
11:05 The downsides
13:57 Other ways of recycling
14:34: Conclusion