Solution+Research

Find ways to improve nuclear wastes creation, recycling, storage and transportation

Reduce the costs of opening and running a nuclear power plant to allow for more plants to be built.

"Could Thorium Make Nuclear Power Safe? - The Week." //The Week Magazine: Political News and Cartoons, Current Events and Entertainment Online//. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. .

Thorium reactors would require 1/200 of the amount of fuel reducing transportation costs Thorium could be used in reactions with nuclear waste to create extra energy The reactors would be unable to melt down saving costs on related safety systems and insurance A town of 1,000 could buy a reactor and produce all of their energy for about $.40 after start up costs America has almost 450,000 Metric tons of thorium available, enough for hundreds of years of fuel with minimal transport needed The only reason thorium is not currently being used is because thorium can not produce weapons grade fuel, and this fuel leaves less nuclear waste

"Nuclear Power Economics | Nuclear Energy Costs." //World Nuclear Association | Nuclear Power - a Sustainable Energy Resource//. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. .

increased enrichment have reduced the cost of nuclear fuel by over 40% and can be reduced even further An 8% increase in yield has allowed this cheaper fuel to create even more energy and still has a large area of improvement available Left over plutonium and uranium can be mixed together into another type of fuel that is expensive but does not need enrichment so is cheaper overall The cost of uranium affects the price of energy production very minimally, reducing the dangers of a price increase More efficient construction will reduce the amount of time needed to get the power plants operating and producing energy As nuclear energy becomes more publicly accepted and more reliable the loans will reduce in cost Decommissioning a nuclear reactor is a high cost that can be avoided by repairing nuclear power plants and then extending their time of operation More effective methods of recycling, storing or transporting nuclear waste will reduce the 10% of costs these actions account for to even less The costs of creating nuclear power plants has been increasing by 15% for several years, if this can be stopped or reversed it will make future plants much cheaper Building many units at one facility at one time greatly reduces the cost per reactor, and in turn cost per KwH

"New-generation Reactors Help Reduce Nuclear Waste." //Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology//. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. .

Left over elements would be dissolved and reused instead of being disposed of as waste Many of these reused elements are the very long loved radioactive elements that will stay around for thousands of years otherwise Light water reactions use up uranium that resources will be depleted in under 200 years and leave behind thousand of tons of nuclear waste Switching to new types of reactors will preserve the remaining supplies and continued increases in efficiency will keep on decrease the amount of radioactive material being used to produce a given amount of energy The creation of these new technologies will take time due to the need for safety precautions needing to be created and tested

"Nuclear Waste - The Unsolved Problem." //Use Celsias.com - Reduce Global °Celsius//. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. .

The proper name for nuclear waste is SNF, or spent nuclear fuel After being used most fuel is stored onsite at the power plants for temporary storage, despite most plants not having any locations originally intended for it One method for disposing of waste is taking it to a site and giving it up to 100 years to release radiation Another method is taking the liquid and mixing it into a stable solid, such as glass Either way the process ends by the SNF being placed into geological depositories and remaining there Geological depositories are meant to be at least several hundred yards below ground, with shielding placed between the SNF and the rock formation No country has an active geological depository which is what has caused many power plants to rely on on-site storage Companies and governments are very broad when describing what they are doing in terms of creating final storage locations, forcing more detailed reports would allow for more public knowledge between groups, and possibly solving the problem faster British energy produces .012g of SNF per kilowatt hour of energy created, a small number until remembering nuclear power creates tens of millions of kilowatts of power every year, reducing this number by even a small amount would drastically decrease the amount of SNF produced by power plants