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
We kind of do!
There are newer gen reactors that can use the waste from the older style ones as fuel, or they can use less refined fuel in the first place, but it does provide a second life for that “spent” fuel.
As far as pure thermal power? There’s just not that much waste fuel to use even if you wanted to mess with handling the stuff. It only generates a useful amount of energy as reaction mass.
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