Eli5 why can’t radioactive waste be used again? Why is it waste?
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Remember the periodic table ? All element have a little number. That number is amount of proton and neutron inside the element. The higher the number is, the less stable is the element. If there is more proton and neutron, it is hard for the nucleus (the proton and neutron stuff) to keep itself together. It will have a tendency to eject a neutron or a proton out which will reduce its number, creating a new, more stable, element.
Ejecting a proton/neutron is what we call radioactive. If you take an unstable element in your hand aka a radioactive element, your skin would be bombarded by those proton/neutron..
So, after a while, your original element is kind of not what it used to be. A part of it has been transformed into a stable element that is now stable while the other part is still radioactive. This mean that your fuel does not eject as much proton/neutron as it used to be so it generates less heat. It is still radioactive but not enough to do its job properly.
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