Scientists Develop Accelerator That Could Slash Nuclear Waste Lifespan by 99%

Scientists Develop Accelerator That Could Slash Nuclear Waste Lifespan by 99%

For decades, nuclear energy has been regarded as the black sheep of the energy universe, thanks to drawbacks such as high costs, risk of thermal runaway leading to catastrophic accidents as well as the hazardous by-products of nuclear plants. Nuclear waste is notorious for the fact that it can remain dangerously radioactive for many thousands of years. Currently, there are thousands of metric tons of used solid fuel from nuclear power plants wor…

Turning Nuclear Waste Into Power: How U.S. Particle Accelerators Could Slash Radioactive Lifespans by 99.7%

For decades, the question of what to do with spent nuclear fuel has haunted the atomic energy industry. Mountains of highly radioactive waste sit in temporary storage pools and dry casks at reactor sites across the United States, waiting for a permanent repository that, after the political collapse of the Yucca Mountain project, may never come. Now, a set of ambitious projects backed by the U.S. Department of Energy is attempting something that …