WEBVTT - Nuclear Waste - What's the Solution? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.560 Forward Thinking. Pay there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.200 podcast that looks at the future and says trash, don't 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.440 pick it up, take them lights away. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:24.520 I'm Lauren, and I'm Joe McCormick. So in our last podcast, 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.639 we talked about the problem of radioactive waste and how 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.760 it's a pretty serious one. It's one that we have 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.840 to lend serious consideration too, so that we can find 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:39.440 a solution that doesn't know or radiate people unnecessarily or 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:43.520 even necessarily. Yes, we talked about some of the waste 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:47.200 facilities that are currently in existence and the main kind 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.479 that we would really like to have that is currently 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.479 not in existent. So today I figured we'd take a 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:58.080 little more forward looking, uh look on the show called 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.800 Forward Thinking. Maybe a little more a forward glancing look, 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.120 a forward looking glance. How about we just sort of 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.760 explore the different options that may or may not be 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.800 open to us as far as dealing with nuclear waste. Right, Well, 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.520 let's do a little bit of recap on the last episode. 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:17.880 So one of the things we learned is that not 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:22.520 all nuclear waste is the same exactly. So the vast 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:27.040 majority of the nuclear waste that is produced, or radioactive 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:31.520 waste is what's called low level waste or intermediate level waste. 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.120 And this is about nineties seven percent of all nuclear 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.440 waste generated, but only five percent of the radioactivity. Right, 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.160 So what is this stuff? Well, it's stuff that's been 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.240 in contact with radioactive material and has picked up some 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.160 radioactivity because of that, either it's radioactive dust or the 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.960 radioactive material itself has started to cause some ionizing reactions. 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.120 So intermediate level waste tends to be stuff that's been 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.960 in contact with radioactive waste for a while, like filters, 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.480 parts of a reactor, this kind of thing. I think 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.640 that probably also stuff like like filings from uranium mills 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.520 fall into that general probably. Yeah, this gets kind of 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.120 weird because different countries classify things in slightly different ways. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:14.680 But then low level waste would include stuff that's had 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:19.280 less intense contact with radioactive material but still has come 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.440 into contact with it. So tools, uh, protective clothing and gear, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.560 that kind of thing that might fall into that category, 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:27.639 and we have to find ways to deal with all 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.720 of it. Yeah, these lower level wastes, they are still 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:32.960 somewhat radioactive, so we do have to be careful in 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:34.920 how we're dealing with them. Yeah, you don't want your 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.560 children to swallow them, right, so disposal, take that Take 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:44.680 that protective over you know, protective apron out of your mouth, Jimmy. Yeah, Well, 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:49.120 some gloves are more delicious than others, I guess. So anyway, 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:54.000 the low level waste is not all that dangerous. It's 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.760 not good, but it's it's not something it's not our 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.239 main concerns. It's the sort of stuff that we can 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:05.600 safely disposed of in uh in a essentially a trench 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.880 or pit and covered with with soil, and it will 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.440 be uh, it will be secure enough where we don't 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:16.000 have to worry about that affecting people. Yeah, I guess 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.480 the intermediate level waste is intermediate. But what comes after 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.800 intermediate high level waste, high level waste, that is what 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:27.200 is a big problem. Yeah, we're not talking about pants. No, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.400 it's not a high level waste. It's not an eighties 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.800 genes kind of thing. Now, we're talking about waste that 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.600 is highly radioactive. This is the stuff that makes up 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.480 the radioactivity, even though it's only three percent of the 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.640 volume of waste. Yeah, So for the purpose of this podcast, 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.760 we might just say high level waste to include all 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.200 the things were about to mention. But some people make 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.640 a distinction between spent nuclear fuel and what they then 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.560 call high level waste. On top of that, high level 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.400 waste being what has been processed out of spent fuel. Yeah, 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.560 so if you get if you have spent fuel, yeah, 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.000 you have spent fuel, you do some reprocessing of it, 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.880 so you can recapture uranium and plutonium from that spin 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.680 fuel that have not been burned. Yeah, because as it 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.280 turns out, not very much of it gets consumed in 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.840 these nuclear reactors. It doesn't It doesn't take much for 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:20.719 a nuclear rod, for example, to become inefficient, so it's 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:22.839 no longer heating up water to the levels that we 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:27.200 needed to. But there's still plenty of uranium and plutonium 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.600 in there, and those are important resources. So if we're 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.240 able to reprocess it, we can recapture that uranium and plutonium. 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.800 But there's gonna be some stuff left over that is 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.480 not going to be useful for us, and it's really radioactive. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.160 That is high level waste. So we're probably going to 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.360 be using high level waste to refer to both that 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.120 and the spent nuclear fuel. Just keep in mind that 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.559 there are other people and organizations that do differentiate between 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.039 the two. There are different things. They're just for the 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:58.200 practical purpose. They're both very radioactive and very dangerous. So alright, 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:02.000 so we talked about our last podcast. We mentioned yucka 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.160 mountain in Nevada was going to be a geological repository. 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.000 This place where we would be able to put spent 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.159 nuclear fuel or high level waste or both uh and 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.080 have it safely locked away so that it could not 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:19.800 hurt people for ten thousand years? Was really the idea 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.480 or longer? Right? And we mentioned these kind of off 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.240 the cuff and mentioned them as well, this is what 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:29.160 is generally agreed upon to be the best idea. So 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.440 so why is that? What's going on with these things? Exactly? 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:33.400 So the reason why it's considered to be the best 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.120 idea is because it has a whole lot of separation 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.080 between us and nuclear waste. But let's talk about what 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.760 how many either actually are in existence? Because that's a 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.440 real sticking point, right, That's right. There are zero currently 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.800 in operation for high level waste or for spent fuel. Yeah, 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.760 so why why are these uh, these facilities, these deep 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:57.880 geological repositories ideal for high level waste. Well, I mean again, 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.960 it keeps it really far away from people. It's you know, 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:05.800 we're talking about a finding a place on Earth where 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:08.560 we can bury this stuff where you're you're not too 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.159 worried about the geological features changing dramatically over the next 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:16.159 hundred thousand years. You want it to remain as stable 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.880 as possible because you want it to contain that nuclear waste. 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:20.320 So you don't want to put it in a place 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.600 where there's going to be a lot of like earthquakes, 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.120 your volcanic activity, and that both of those would be 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:27.640 very bad. Yeah, you don't want to have any any 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.280 chance of or you want to minimize the chances of 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.599 any sort of breach. You want it to be safe, Like, 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.080 you don't want it to be in a really tropical region. 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:37.880 You don't want there to be a lot of water present, 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.039 So you want to find an arid or semi arid 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.640 kind of area where water is not as big a problem. 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.359 You want to be able to isolate the the chamber 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.919 wherever you're putting the stuff, the repository itself from any water, 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:55.440 whether it's runoff from from rain or if it's a 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:57.920 water that's underground, you want to make sure it's safe 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.200 from all of that so it doesn't contaminate any those 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.680 water sources, which could then go go on to enter 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.440 into various ecosystems and contaminate them. That would be bad 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.640 as well. So you mentioned that there were zero in 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.240 operation for high level waste. Are their geological repositories for 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.360 something else, maybe intermediate level waste? Yeah, there are three 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.720 in operation for low and intermediate level waste. Uh. They 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.440 are found in Finland and Sweden. And there's one in 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:27.480 operation for trans uranic waste in the USA at the 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.960 Waste Isolation Pilot Plant or WHIP. We will be revisiting 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.679 the WHIP facility later on. Yeah. So uh we mentioned 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.160 in the last podcast, but just as a reminder, trans 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.760 uranic waste is one of those terms that is used 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:44.000 in the United States but not really widely used elsewhere. 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:48.160 It's generally talking about waste elements with atomic numbers that 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.280 are higher than uranium. It's a byproduct of nuclear research, 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:55.360 weapons production, and power production. Uh. And it's mostly stuff 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.200 like tools, residue gear and usually only contains a small 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.520 amount of actually radioactive material. It's still dangerous, but it's 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.880 not considered as dangerous as high level waste. It was 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:11.239 used for the waste isolation pilot plant because you didn't 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.760 have to go whole hog into high level waste in 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:15.920 your in your pilot program. You know, you want to 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.320 test the pilot program, but you don't want to throw 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.800 everything at it right at once and then risk having 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.360 a catastrophic failure with the worst stuff on the planet. Okay, 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.640 so what's the idea behind the pilot plant. Well, it's 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.840 a facility outside of Carl's Bad New Mexico, and uh, 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.160 it's meant to be a ten thousand years safe facility. 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.559 And we talked a little bit in the last episode 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:41.280 about the kinds of things that those facilities include. Um, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.320 what I find really fascinating and kind of charming about 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.240 the waist Isolation Pilot Plant is that it furthermore features 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.360 a number of magnets, radar reflectors, and forty eight stone 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.640 and concrete markers weighing a hundred and five tons each 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.040 that are carved with warnings in seven languages and human 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.840 faces expressing horror in order to drive people away from 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.960 this facility. For years, because the idea being that how 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.200 can we protect and we'll talk more about this later, 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.240 but how can we protect future generations from something as 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:18.880 dangerous as nuclear waste? Knowing that in ten thousand years time, 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.080 think about the last ten thousand years. I mean, we 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.240 don't have any languages that date from that far back, 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.040 So how would we even know what people how people 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:31.079 are communicating within ten thousand years? Uh? And UH. One 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.960 of those languages that was mentioned was Navajo because that 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.439 was the native language of the area, UM, which I 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:38.160 thought was very interesting that that was one of the 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:43.280 represented languages on these markers. So yeah, very interesting. And 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.880 again we'll revisit that because there's some fascinating things to 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.760 talk about in that respect. On top of that, Uh, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.120 this year, two thousand fourteen, there were some incidents early 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.120 this year at the waste isolation pilot plant. One of 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.920 those was that there was an incident on February fourt fourteen, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.320 so Valentine's Day, there was a radiation leak underground. Uh. 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.600 Within a couple of weeks there was detection of airborne 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.840 radioactive particles within a half mile from the facility and ultimately, 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.360 or at least initially thirteen workers were tested positive as 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:21.480 having radiation exposure. But just I mean, that's serious stuff. Obviously, 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.480 you're talking about a facility designed to contain this stuff 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.920 and there was a containment failure. Um. One of the 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.240 reasons why this is a really serious issue is that 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:33.960 the if you listen to our last episode, you heard 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.640 us talk about the yuck A Mountain project and how 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.160 political pressures have really set that back to the point 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.440 where it may not ever be used for what it 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.240 was intended. There are some people who are saying we 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.720 should probably look at WHIP as instead the next geological 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.800 repository and upgraded so that we could put high level 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.760 waste there, because now we've got this pilot program. But 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.160 with this radiation leak that really brings that into question too, 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.600 Like is it a good idea when we're talking about 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:05.040 a low level or intermediary level type of radiation having 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:07.959 a leakage problem? What happens when we put the high 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.760 level stuff there? If there was a leakage problem with that, 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.720 it could be even more serious. I mean, any radiation 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:16.600 leakage problem is serious already, but when you're talking about 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.080 catastrophic exactly, Yeah, you could have some some truly devastating effects, 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:26.520 especially if that radiation gets leaked into the surrounding ecosystem. 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.640 So that's kind of leads into the same discussion we 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.240 had last time. The political issues are huge, Like one, 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.679 you have to figure out where on Earth are the 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.480 prime real estate places for these kind of things. Right, Well, 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.720 that's not so much a political issue, that's sort of 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.360 a scientific no. But that that's the first problem you have. 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.160 It is like, let's just identify where like we obviously 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.520 we can't put these anywhere. We have to put them 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:57.160 someplace that is geologically ideal for the for a repository. 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.640 That's that's problem one. Yeah, and and even yuck a 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.040 moutain some problems with that. I mean, people were arguing 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.160 that it was too close to fault lines, and yeah 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:06.000 that there were people who are arguing there was too 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:08.199 much tectonic activity. There were people who are arguing that 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.160 there was there were too many cracks in the rock itself, 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:18.200 and of nine potential facilities as the absolute best one. 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:21.000 So nothing is probably going to be absolutely perfect, right, 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.439 And so first you have to to pick the places 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:25.199 that you could potentially put this stuff. Then you have 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.720 to convince people that that's what needs to go there, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:31.640 and if you live near those places, like we mentioned 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:33.360 in the last episode, you might have that not in 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.800 my backyard reaction where you do not want this dangerous 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.640 stuff put near you, and very human and understandable reaction. 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.679 It's also one that's problematic because then what do you 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.080 do with all the stuff that's accumulating. So um, yeah, 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:52.079 these are really big issues. There's also just the question 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.480 of how do you get the nuclear waste from where 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:59.000 it's generated to where it's supposed to go? Right, Yeah, 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.800 it opens up the possibility of having a nuclear waste 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:05.440 transportation accident. There's actually debate going on in Scotland right 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.439 now about whether local plans should be allowed to consolidate 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.599 waste prior to permanent disposal. And you know it's no 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.840 one likes car accidents. No one really likes plutonium involved 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.480 car accidents, right yeah. Doc Brown told us that that's 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:22.400 a bad idea. Fortunately, as far as I know, I 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.000 don't think there's ever been a radioactive waste transportation accident. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:28.960 So they have them pretty well locked down and it's 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:33.120 an extremely expensive and paperwork filled process. Yeah, it's actually 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.960 one of those where you know, obviously if you're going 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:37.920 to be transporting something like that, you have to do 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.120 it in a way that is incredibly well coordinated and 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:45.199 extremely secret, because you don't want to publicize when this 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.839 dangerous stuff is going to be out in the open, 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:53.000 one site to another dinner bell for potential nuclear weapons makers. Yeah, exactly. 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:55.439 So it's it's certainly one of those things that is 0:13:55.520 --> 0:14:00.480 a high, high priority activity whenever it does happen. Uh. 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:02.120 And well we'll talk a little bit more about the 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.840 technicalities involved in that later on. Yeah, So let's instead 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.480 of looking at this so that the repository was sort 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.839 of the the big solution that people settled on a 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:14.760 couple of decades ago. Was saying, all right, this one 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.360 sounds like this is the best idea, And as it 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:19.840 turns out, there are a lot of human problems that 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.600 make it hard to implement this idea. But what about 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.520 other ideas of how to deal with nuclear waste? What 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.800 about just crammin it ne garage somewhere. Well, that's what 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:32.920 we're doing right now. Then that, as it turns out, 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:37.640 is not necessarily a long term solution. Uh. And while 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.280 I am being facetious by saying that's what we're doing 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.280 right now. What we are doing right now is not 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.520 that far from cramming it into a garage. I mean, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:47.480 it's like a really nice garage. It's a garage that 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.320 was meant to hold nuclear waste, but not indefinitely. It 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.560 was meant to hold it for you know, three decades. Yeah. 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.239 So yeah, long term above ground storage that was investigated 0:14:57.280 --> 0:14:59.800 by a lot of countries, including the United States, and 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:01.800 and was eventually said, you know, this is not a 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.960 good idea. It's just not safe enough. It's not uh, 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.640 it's not a permanent solution. It's intermediate at best, so 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.120 we need something else. In fact, the United States looked 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.400 into it as being a potential long term solution and 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.120 then said, yeah, we gotta find a different way. So 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.440 that's off the table. Okay, what about this idea of reprocessing. 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.800 This has come up before that. Apparently some countries reprocess 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.360 spent nuclear fuel to see what they can do with it. Now, 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.680 is this something that's going to get rid of the 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.440 high level waste problem? Absolutely not. This is what generates 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.920 high level waste. Okay, how does it do that? So 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.760 you've got the spent nuclear fuel? Uh? And we mentioned 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.600 before that when you use nuclear fuel, you only use 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.360 up about two percent of it, especially in solid nuclear fuel. 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.280 There are different types of reactors, Like if you were 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.000 using liquid nuclear fuel, it's a different thing, but your 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:56.160 standards solid nuclear rod, you use up about two percent 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.840 of the fuel and the other remains unburned, which means 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.400 that you know, if you're just gonna toss that, you're 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:07.720 you're losing. Yeah. Now, the thing is that uranium is 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:12.520 actually not that expensive compared to the process of reprocessing uranium. 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.720 So if it's cheaper to buy new uranium than it 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.640 is to reprocess the stuff you've already used, guess what 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:23.160 people do. They buy new uranium because there's no incentive 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.840 to reprocess the stuff you already have if it's more 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.640 expensive than just going out and buying the new stuff. Now, 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.120 around the late two thousand's, the price of uranium started 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.560 to climb and that caused a lot of countries to 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.920 look into this reprocessing uh technique, which means they try 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.600 to reclaim as much of the uranium and plutonium that 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.480 still exists in that nuclear fuel as possible, And about 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.400 of it is uranium and about another percent is plutonium, 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.280 and the remaining three is this stuff they can't use. 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.440 That's the high level waste that we've been talking about. 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:00.680 That's the stuff that's really dangerous, and it's gonna be 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.360 dangerous for a long long time. So we've got to 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.280 figure out what to do. So even if you do 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.040 reprocess it so that you can use the stuff again 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:12.240 in some other nuclear fuel reaction, whatever that may be, 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:15.840 you still at the end of the day have stuff 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:17.720 left over that you have to figure out what are 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:19.800 you gonna do with it. So it's not it's not 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.160 a solution of getting rid of nuclear waste. Um, it's 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.640 just how do you keep on using the stuff you've 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.399 got for as long as you can, uh, rather than 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:34.119 buying new uranium? So not not a not a long 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.399 term solution, and it and it doesn't completely solve the problem, 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.960 and not at all. No, you still have the problem 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.240 of the high level waste. And eventually, you know, eventually 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:44.400 you're going to get to a point where it will 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.280 cost more to reprocess whatever fuel you have than to 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.919 just go out and get new stuff, unless you're somehow 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.119 re enriching it and recombining it with other reprocessed fuels. 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.960 Unless there were regulations that were forcing companies to do this, 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.639 it might not be anyone would choose to do right, 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:06.320 and ultimately it's not a big environmental improvement over just 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.480 storing spent nuclear fuel in pools, which is what we're 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.200 doing right now. We're keeping them in pools for fifty 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.280 years before we can do anything else with it. Well, 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.320 I have a different solution that involves putting nuclear waste 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:22.160 in waters. What's that, It's called quote disposal. Let's see 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:26.760 a k A. Dumping radioactive waste directly into the ocean. Yeah, 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.480 because it's not like there's anything going on, and it's 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:35.760 not like there are complex ecosystems or worldwide movements of 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:41.840 large trade winds, giant currents that could carry nuclear particles 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.879 thousands of miles onto the shores of distance. Okay, okay, 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.040 let's back off now. Surely nobody would actually do this, right, 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.320 It's just one of those. Clearly, this is crazy and 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.879 no one would ever do nobody except like a dozen 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.200 different countries including the United States, Russia and the former 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.680 Soviet Union and the UK, Japan and a bunch of 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.320 other European countries. Uh, there are there are dump sites 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.119 in the oceans all over the world. Now here's the 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:09.320 here's the big thing to keep in mind, as far 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:12.320 as we know, it's not like people have been dumping 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.480 high level waste into the ocean. This is a dump. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.560 They've been dumping intermediate and low level waste into the ocean. Still, 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:24.520 there were decades when this was done, decades if people 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:27.879 began to get increasingly uncomfortable over time. So since the 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:33.040 nineteen nineties, international agreements have banned dumping radioactive waste into 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.280 the ocean. But so we we've been doing this since 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:38.680 what like the sixties that I think since the forties maybe, 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:40.919 and then it wasn't until the nineties that we all 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:43.320 got it together to be offended by. We had a 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.480 lot going on in the eighties. Um, there was like 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.800 a lot going on that you aren't aware of. I mean, 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.560 I mean, I was was teaching America how to laugh 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.719 on Saturday Night Live, I believe you. And the DVR 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.080 didn't even exist yet, so you had to watch that. Yeah, 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.160 this is uh so it seems crazy to me even 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.200 though this is so. We are talking about lower level wastes, 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.960 but it's not that incredibly dangerous high level waste. If 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.640 they were doing that, that would be absolutely insane. Yeah, 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.520 this lower level waste. Supposedly, from what I've read, most 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:22.400 authorities have said it's probably not really dangerous. It's probably 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.920 not significantly harming ecosystems because it's contained and it's the 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:31.200 lower level waste. The water is a very good shield 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.320 against radiation. You know, you have to have several You 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:36.840 wouldn't want to get right next to any sort of 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.480 radioactive source, even in the water, but ten meters away 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:42.840 it's a you know, if there's ten meters of water 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:47.440 around this radioactive stuff, then it's a very good shielding 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:53.720 unit for it would away in air. Yes, So it's uh, 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.200 you know, there's that to consider as well. Depending upon 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.560 the dumping site, there could be a minimal impact on 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.440 certain ecosystems. But it's still something that I would be 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.320 very much not happy with, especially if I were, like, 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:09.440 I don't know someone who actually came across one of 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.120 these things, but that's never happened, right, Speaking of that, Yeah, 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:14.800 I read in an article in the Wall Street Journal 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:20.119 this wonderful paragraph quote. Commercial fishermen have at times hauled 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.560 up waste containers from various parts of the Massachusetts Bay 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.959 home to a dump site. Frank Mirarchi, a seventy year 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:32.280 old retired commercial fisherman said his catches occasionally included nuclear 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.840 junk containers. After one such discovery, Mr Mirarchi said government 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:39.680 officials checked him and his crew for radiation but didn't 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:47.480 find problems. Comforting. It's so once again, I do want 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:49.600 to remind you, it's not it's not like that they're 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.280 dumping the high level waste. It could be a lot worse. 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.600 And they're not not dumping anything now yeah yeah, yeah, right, right, 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.440 but just previously dumping the high level waste probably well, 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.159 it's far as we know. I'm I mean, honestly, I 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.800 don't know what the Soviet Union was doing, but I'm 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:07.600 not sure even the Soviet Union was aware of what 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.040 the Soviet Union was doing. That part of the problem. 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:14.040 It's the former Soviet Union. Yeah, But in any case, 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:17.120 so it's not like we've got high level way strolling 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:18.960 around in the ocean as far as we know. But 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:23.560 still bad idea, don't ever do that again, humans, Just 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:27.040 that still please dispose of the stuff properly. And why 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:29.000