My knowledge about school level physics is admittedly not that fleshed out, but we were told that it is possible to convert mass to energy. My google-fu has sadly left me for my question here 🙁
So why can’t we just take e.g. nuclear waste and convert it to energy? After that so is my understanding it wouldn’t simply exist as matter anymore and wouldn’t require to store dangerous trash if you can convert it all to energy.
In: 77
The waste is a result of fission byproducts. When U-235 absorbs an additional neutron, the nucleus becomes unstable. The total mass of the nucleus goes above the binding energy per nucleon, the nucleus can’t contain the mass within it and it essentially explodes. When it explodes, or fissions, it releases energy, some in the form of heat, the rest in electromagnetic radiation. That heat is used in a reactor the add energy to the water raising the temperature of the water. When the nucleus fissions, it also releases 2 or 3 neutrons (avg of 2.43) which go on to either be lost out of the reactor, absorbed into a material designed to capture neutrons (a poison), or they may bounce around against the water molecules like pool balls until their energy is very low. Then, they may become absorbed into another U-235 atom to produce another fission. The rest of the fissile material from the original U-235 atom splits into various elements of varying isotopes such as rubidium, strontium, cesium, krypton, and xenon to name some of the more common elements. Most of these elements are unstable and will further decay into other isotopes and elements. All of these leftover elements from fission (fission byproducts) are what make up the nuclear waste. It is generally highly radioactive and made up of many different materials with varying radioactive energies and activities.
TL;DR
The fission of uranium produces other elements that are radioactive and must be disposed of carefully.
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