If radioactive waste emits heat, why can’t we use it to produce energy?

Question

If radioactive waste emits heat, why can’t we use it to produce energy?

In: 132

Answer 1

The short answer: we *can,* but doing so is *hugely* inefficient (you’d need *a lot* of waste to generate a practical amount of heat), and cleaning up radioactive waste is *expensive*.

The cost of cleaning up the US’ Cold War-era nuclear waste was estimated by the General Accounting Office (GAO) a few years ago to be ~$377 billion, and that cost had jumped by $100 billion in a single year.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a26145608/nuclear-waste-cleanup-cost-377-billion/