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

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

Nuclear power plants generate electricity by converting the heat from controlled nuclear fission into mechanical and eventually into electric energy *in the first place*.
The very fact that the final fuel state is called “waste” gives you a hint to the answer of your question: It can no longer emit **enough** heat to be a viable fuel.