Reactor waste remains hot as waste so why do we not pile it in a massive dump and cirulate water through it to raise steam or at least preheat water for heat generation?
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Thanks everyone for an informative and interesting discussion.
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In: 337
France does recycle nuclear fuel by extracting the more long-lived waste stuff from old fuel (especially plutonium and left-over uranium) and mixing it with depleted uranium left over from the enrichment process (Uranium fuel needs to be concentrated from a ratio of 99.2% U-238 and 0.72% U-235 to 3-5% U-235. As you can imagine this process means you have a lot of left-over U-238, ie depleted uranium).
This fuel is called MOX (Mixed Oxides) and reduces France need of new uranium by 17% (and the use of long-term storage by a similar proportion).
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