Burning waste or playing with fire? Waste management considerations for non-traditional reactors

By Lindsay Krall, Allison Macfarlane, August 31, 2018

A schematic of TerraPower's Molten Chloride Fast Reactor

Why some advanced nuclear reactor technologies—funded for their supposed waste management benefits—will actually exacerbate spent fuel disposal issues.

Read more: Burning waste or playing with fire? Waste management considerations for non-traditional reactors

Issue: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Volume 74 Issue 5
Keywords: High-level waste, geologic disposal, molten salt reactor, reprocessing, sodium-cooled fast reactor, spent fuel
Topics: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Risk

Share:

1
Leave a Reply

Subscribe

newest oldest most voted

Guest

Secundius

What ever happended to the “PAWDS” (Plasma Arc Waste Disposal System)!/? Wasn’t that what it was Constructed For…

Lindsay Krall

Lindsay Krall is a post-doctoral Macarthur fellow at the George Washington University Institute for International Science and Technology Policy. Her research focuses on policies for the back...

Allison Macfarlane

Allison Macfarlane is a professor of Science Policy and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and director of the Institute for I...

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

North Korean verification: Good enough for government work?

By Gary Samore | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

Washington-Moscow nuclear verification: Tensions and solutions

By Steven Pifer | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification: A foundation for future arms reductions

By Corey Hinderstein | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

How the IAEA verifies if a country’s nuclear program is peaceful or not: The legal basis

By Laura Rockwood | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

Chronic long-term risk of low-level radiation exposure: Bridging the lay/expert divide

By François Diaz-Maurin | Uncategorized

Ventilator blues: Infectious disease expert Tom Inglesby on the next major pandemic

By | Biosecurity, Disruptive Technologies

RELATED POSTS

Illustration by Matt Field. Based in part on photo by Alias 0591 CC BY 2.0.

Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula begins with a peace declaration

By David Kim | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump meet in Singapore in 2018. Credit: White House photo via Twitter.

North Korean concessions the United States might want

By David Kim | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

say what, nuclear weapons, low-yield, w76-2

Say WHAT? — A case of low-yield nuclear thinking

By Thomas Gaulkin | Multimedia, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons, What We’re Reading

Russia may have violated the INF Treaty. Here’s how the United States appears to have done the same.

By Theodore A. Postol | Missile Defense, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

Trump and Kim in Singapore 2018

Goals for any arms control proposal with North Korea

By John K. Warden, Ankit Panda | Analysis, Nuclear Weapons

Sig Hecker on North Korea in 2018

By Katy Gabel Chui | Interviews, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

Receive Email
Updates