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Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thedoc on 20/07/2010 17:39:43

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: thedoc on 20/07/2010 17:39:43

If nuclear waste is hot - as I have heard - why can it not be connected to some type of heat exchanger to drive a turbine and provide energy as in a geothermal plant?
Asked by Martin Kilgore


               

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Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: Madidus_Scientia on 09/05/2008 14:21:09

Because it might be hot but no longer hot enough to boil water into steam to drive a turbine.

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: LeeE on 09/05/2008 16:36:22

I _think_ it may largely be due to economical reasons.  Although it'll still produce heat, and so could still be used to generate energy, the amount of energy you could generate from it would be insufficient to justify the costs needed to do so.

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: lyner on 09/05/2008 21:04:04

You could run water pipes from all the old Russian nuclear subs in the Arctic Circle to blocks of flats in Minsk, for instance. 'Combined Waste and Power'; that would be a nice sounding acronym.

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: LeeE on 09/05/2008 21:36:47

You'd really want to put a heat exchanger in the system, somewhere between the subs and the flats.  Otherwise I wouldn't fancy the chances much, for a plumber called out to fix a leaking radiator.

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: chris on 09/05/2008 22:24:02

Yes, and I wouldn't wear Russian underpants either, if I were you...because "Cher-nobyl fallout"...

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: syhprum on 10/05/2008 09:34:22

It is of course used in small power plants on satellites that have to travel into deep space where solar panels would have to be very large but it is a very expensive form of power generation.
"A General Purpose Heat Source Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (GPHS-RTG) provides electrical power for the Pluto mission. Electricity for the Pluto New Horizons spacecraft is generated from the conversion of heat caused by the radioactive decay of plutonium in the form of plutonia (PuO2). The RTG contains 18 heat source modules, with four 151-gram plutonia pellets in each. With a total mass of plutonia at 10.9 kilograms, the RTG will provide approximately 250 watts of power at the beginning of the mission".

 

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: skp on 01/11/2011 05:48:17

Surely the waste could be used to power a stirling engine?

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: SeanB on 01/11/2011 19:58:33

Used fuel is hot because only about 55 of the energy available in it has actually been used, the other 95% is still available for use, if it is reprocessed to reduce the waste products of fission from it. then you can get to around 60% of the energy out, and can blend it with depleted uranium and burn that as well. just needs to be reprocessed, which is a politically hot potato, and is not done anywhere other than Japan.

Kind of like buying a new car, and throwing it on the junkheap when the fuel tank is empty, as opening it and pouring in petrol is too much of a hassle.

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: aku82 on 04/11/2011 10:17:20

Quote from: SeanB on 01/11/2011 19:58:33

Used fuel is hot because only about 55 of the energy available in it has actually been used, the other 95% is still available for use, if it is reprocessed to reduce the waste products of fission from it. then you can get to around 60% of the energy out, and can blend it with depleted uranium and burn that as well. just needs to be reprocessed, which is a politically hot potato, and is not done anywhere other than Japan.

Kind of like buying a new car, and throwing it on the junkheap when the fuel tank is empty, as opening it and pouring in petrol is too much of a hassle.

Hi there,

I've heard that somewhere. What is the reason anyway? By recycling surely we can reduce its lethal waste. Nuclear Proliferation? I don't this is a justifiable nor logical excuse, compared to the dangers of too much nuclear waste dumpsites which could also lead to unconventional nuclear terrorism such as dirty bombs.

Btw, you mean 5%, isn't it, not 55?

Thanks, nice to meet you all.

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: Nizzle on 04/11/2011 10:43:34

Quote from: LeeE on 09/05/2008 21:36:47

You'd really want to put a heat exchanger in the system, somewhere between the subs and the flats.  Otherwise I wouldn't fancy the chances much, for a plumber called out to fix a leaking radiator.

It would indeed give a new dimension to the word 'radiator' :p

Title: If nuclear waste is hot, can it be used as an energy source?
Post by: willyp00 on 04/11/2011 14:50:35

It doesn't have to be boiling hot to be a usable heat source. It just has to be accumulated into an uncomfortably big source of invading atoms and ionizing radiation to take advantage of that part of that part of it's electromagnetic emission.