nuclear-news

Google and Amazon Are Betting Big on Nuclear. No One Has a Plan for the Radioactive Waste

By Jacob Adelman, Oct 24, 2024

 Deals announced by Google and Amazon last week to power their
artificial-intelligence businesses with mini nuclear plants mark a new
frontier for so-called small-module reactors. The planned new generation of
compact power units are faster and less expensive to manufacture than
conventional ones, and are simpler to operate, their advocates say.

But the announcements may complicate an already vexing question that has bedevilled
the industry since the dawn of the atomic age: what to do with the unending
stream of spent fuel and other radioactive waste that are the byproduct of
nuclear power.

The U.S. has so far failed in its decadeslong effort to
build an underground repository for reactor waste to be stored in
perpetuity, leaving it instead to collect on the grounds of reactor
complexes.

Some experts who have studied designs for the small-module
reactors, or SMRs, say they will produce more potent waste than their
larger-scale older siblings—and more of it. They question whether SMRs’
spent fuel can be safely stored at the aboveground reactor sites.

 Barron’s 24th Oct 2024,
https://www.barrons.com/articles/google-amazon-ai-nuclear-waste-16fb39ab

October 28, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized