So the depleted nuclear fuel cannot be used to heat the reactor, but still has plenty of energy in the form of radiation. Why this radiation cannot be used or eliminated by trapping the neutrons from it and produce heat?
In: Physics
It can be reused
France and Russia often reprocessed fuel for reactors to use it again, or mixes it with glass to help with storage, it just takes a ton of equipment to do that on a large scale and make it cost effective, which is expensive
The US for example banned the reprocessing of nuclear waste in 1977, after the practice was controversial, eventually it landed on the side of banning it instead of recycling the fuel
Or it can be used for RTGs, but there’s not a very big demand for those in comparison
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