University of Texas Physicists Figure Out How to Recycle Nuclear Waste

Well, I think it might be time for Mike Kotschenreuther, Swadesh Mahajan and Prashant Valanju, of the IFS, and Erich Schneider of the Department of Mechanical Engineering to win the Nobel Prize for Physics because they may have solved one of the only drawbacks left to nuclear power. Here's how they did it.

First, 75 percent of the original reactor waste is destroyed in standard, relatively inexpensive LWRs. This step produces energy, but it does not destroy highly radiotoxic, transuranic, long-lived waste, what the scientists call "sludge."

In the second step, the sludge would be destroyed in a CFNS-based fusion-fission hybrid. The hybrid's potential lies in its ability to burn this hazardous sludge, which cannot be stably burnt in conventional systems.

"To burn this really hard to burn sludge, you really need to hit it with a sledgehammer, and that's what we have invented here," says Kotschenreuther.

One hybrid would be needed to destroy the waste produced by 10 to 15 LWRs.

You could even make these hybrid reactors a part of the system so the act of destroying the waste will actually generate power as well. Now that is a cool deal. I wonder how they will be getting the sludge to the hybrid reactor though? I guess in barrels in the back of a truck or something. Either way these Physicists just earned themselves $1.5 million dollars and may have solved the global warming problem in one fell swoop. Hook 'Em Horns!