Why do we have e.g. nuclear waste, if mass can be converted to energy?

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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.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I hear there are other reactors that run on nuclear waste and are even safer but I guess as another person posted there’s no real need for them yet unless we’re just going to try to have less waste but I think it’s a cost-efficiency thing, basically why bother producing or utilizing nuclear waste when you can store it in a mountain or underground for a generation or so.

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