this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a little bit complicated and I don't want to write a wall of text but: Waste fuel can be recycled, if your reactor has a breeding ratio higher than 1 then it has net positive production of fissile materials. Potentially all uranium and thorium of the planet could be used.

The argument being, if you consider the word "renewable" in the strictest sense, no energy source is renewable, entropy can only increases: solar depends by the sun burning a finire amount of hydrogen, geothermy depends by earth inner heat which is a finire amount ecc.ecc. The common usage of renewable is along the line of "immensely big proportional to human consumption" and in this sense there's a strong argument to consider nuclear renewable.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Calling an LWR renewable because somebody somewhere might run a closed fuel cycle eventually is like calling oil renewable because you can make hydrocarbons by electrolyzing CO2 and water.

It's and absurd and ridiculous lie.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

With the same argument calling solar and wind renewables just because, hypothetically someone somewhere can fully recycle turbines and panels without having to extract new raw materials is an absurd and ridiculous lie (?)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Except it has happened at least once at >99% yield.

And happens regularly commercially at >70% yield.

So you continue to repeat stupid and absurd lies.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could you back your claims up?

Because in Europe and US the recycling rate if solar panels is around 10% and that without considering we might being miscalculating their real impact

Otherwise, first fast reactor has been built in 1946, we're basically done and there's absolutely no more industrial research needed as it happened at least once /s

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're now trying to misdirect with an unrelated statistic. The current market saturation of recycling isn't the amount of a panel that can be recycled.

Breeding some fissile fuel is not closing the fuel cycle. No reactor has ever prodiced the same material it ran on. Closed cycle nuclear is not even proof of concept.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The current market saturation of recycling isn't the amount of a panel that can be recycled.

The current market for nuclear reprocessing isn't the amount reprocessable either. But to adhere to your argument, it's the probability for a given panel to be recycled; if there isn't an economic rationale, because recycled materials from panels is more expensive than vergin materials, then it's called being out of market, not market saturation.

In reality we aren't recycling solar panels.

No reactor has ever prodiced the same material it ran on

This happen routinely even in non breeder reactors, industrial nuclear nuclear reprocessing is a thing and many reactors in the world run on MOX fuel with plutonium extracted from spent LWR fuel. You only need a breeding ratio higher than 1 because otherwise fissile content will keep diminishing. Arguably there's no more base research needed, both breeding and nuclear reprocessing are time tested process. What we need is industrial scale up, which is a little bit further than a proof of concept

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You've now switched from closed cycle to using the dregs via reprocessing. Entirely unrelated concepts (and reprocessing is also ecologically awful and uneconomical in addition to not meaningfully reducing mining).

In reality all solar panels in large parts of europe built since 2015 will be recycled.

This happen routinely even in non breeder reactors, industrial nuclear nuclear reprocessing is a thing and many reactors in the world run on MOX fuel with plutonium extracted from spent LWR fuel. You only need a breeding ratio higher than 1 because otherwise fissile content will keep diminishing. Arguably there’s no more base research needed, both breeding and nuclear reprocessing are time tested process. What we need is industrial scale up, which is a little bit further than a proof of concept

A soup of random plutonium isotopes isn't usable for MOX. MOX-2 has never happened.

You cannot even keep your bizarre straw man tangent straight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Entirely unrelated concepts

A closed cycle require reprocessing, how else would you recover fissile content in exhaust fuel? Magic?

in addition to not meaningfully reducing mining Because of the low fissile content. Still 20% net reduction in virgin uranium

In reality all solar panels in large parts of europe built since 2015 will be recycled

This is a fallacy called Texas sharpshooter. We'll know if they will be recycled in 20 years, how can we verify this now? How can this be an argument of any value?

A soup of random plutonium isotopes isn't usable for MOX This sentence doesn't make sense whatsoever, MOX-2 isn't even a thing that exist, you've just made it up...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is a fallacy called Texas sharpshooter. We’ll know if they will be recycled in 20 years, how can we verify this now? How can this be an argument of any value?

No, because there is a specific piece of legislation mandating it, a clear well costed industrial plan, and idle recycling facilities waiting for panels to finally wear out.

What you've done is the "nothing can ever start happening more than it is now" fallacy which nuke shills love to roll out.

Not understanding that bombarding Pu240 and Pu239 with neutrons produces different isotope ratios than U238 is a very good way of demonstrating that you actually understand reprocessing /s

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

idle recycling facilities waiting for panels to finally wear out

If they're idle why can't reprocess actual panels ending in waste fields?

Also there's a big flaw in tour argument. Tokyo protocol was a specific piece of legislation, reduction emissions plant etc. So was that Paris agreement And many others Have we solved climate change?

Not understanding that bombarding Pu240 and Pu239 with neutrons produces different isotope ratios than U238

I beg you to read more than the first paragraph of Wikipedia. Pu239 is fissile and is burned in place of the U235 content of enriched uranium. Pu240 neutron capture and become Pu241, which is also fissile. The matrix in most cases is still U238 usually from tailings.

When I say that what you say doesn't make sense is not an insult, literally, your words haven't a complete sense.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not every neutron capture causes fission. And throwing a random soup of fissile and fertile elements in a hole is how you get a meltdown or no reaction -- they're not fungible. Please stop digging your ignorance-hole deeper.

Maybe consider that PV panels aren't kdentical and the ones built after the WESS are not the same? But there goes the nuance-allergy nuke shills have again.

Also this is all an incredibly stupid tangent in the first place, as renewables are renewable so long as they're at least as recyclable as the nuclear plant. Yet again demonstrating the inability to push over your own straw man.

Now you're also trying the condescending from a position of ignorance tactic on top of that. Stupid and ignorant or smug, pick one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unfortunately most reactors are not breeders and we are trying our best to lock the waste away forever which ruins any chance of recovery when we finally do migrate to breeder cycles. I like to compare our current reactors to burning just the bark off of logs and then tossing the rest in a smoldering heap, with 95-99% of the energy still retained in the waste.

Breeder reactors would indeed extend the long term viability of nuclear fission immensely, we should be using them exclusively.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

you do not need a breeder to recycle most of it. also that 95% is still there for future us to use when we are able to.