Since it was first refined, nuclear material and its waste have been difficult to store and manage. As transuranium elements (TRUs) like uranium-234 possess a 250,000-year half-life, securing these enormously toxic substances provides an immediate and long-term design challenge.
While drilling a hole in the side of a mountain and adorning it with universally recognizable warning labels is one solution to nuclear waste containment, engineers are beginning to look for more productive solutions for the growing accumulations of nuclear waste.
According to Hitachi, the industrial giant has moved into the second phase of developing a nuclear reactor design that can use TRUs as a fuel source while also reducing their half-lives from thousands to hundreds of years.
Central to Hitachi’s scheme is the creation of a new fuel element that can be incorporated into current models of Resource-renewable Boiling Water Reactors (RBWR). If a new fuel source is developed nuclear plants could become more economical to build and capable of extinguishing their own toxic waste.
As part of its next phase of development Hitachi engineers plan a deep analysis of their design, concentrating on overall reactor performance and safety. Given that the company has been working with its university partners on this project since 2007 it will likely be decades before they overcome all of the project’s design and regulatory hurdles.
If Hitachi’s engineers are successful in bringing this project to market, however, it could usher in an era of renewed interest in nuclear power. By reducing the unfathomably long radioactive period for nuclear fuel, energy producers would take a giant step toward safe nuclear power.
Source: Hitachi