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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At a certain point, it becomes more trouble than it’s worth. Voyager 1 and 2 both have batteries powered by radioactive decay (radioisotope thermoelectric generators) because they’re too far away for solar power to be useful. This is also the radioactive battery that Matt Damon digs up to keep himself warm in his rover in “The Martian.”
Newer reactors can use some of this waste to squeeze some more fission energy out of it, but the decay energy itself just isn’t enough.
Thorium salt reactors can have their fuel reenriched over and over again, so it produces far less waster over its lifetime. Unfortunately, most reactors are uranium based.
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