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Jan454 | 4 years ago
Is that true? Does it take into account all the nuclear waste that takes millions of years to fade out?
Wouldn't it be fair to calculate "waste produced" as "amount x (duration to be fully recycled)"?
Example calculation based on my amateurish guestimates give us then: residual waste takes maybe 500 years until it's organic earth for planting again. Nuclear waste takes 5 million years, so does a nuclear plant really produce 500 years / 5.000.000 years = 1/50.000th of waste than comparable powerplants?
smileysteve|4 years ago
> (1) The U.S. generates about 2,000 metric tons of used fuel each year. This number may sound like a lot, but it’s actually quite small. In fact, the U.S. has produced roughly 83,000 metrics tons of used fuel since the 1950s—and all of it could fit on a single football field at a depth of less than 10 yards. https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-spent-....
When compared to coal, the a single coal plant produces nearly as much toxic (and radioactive) ash in an hour http://energyforhumanity.org/en/nuclear/what-do-we-do-with-a...
And this ignores recycling (that the U.S. doesn't have, but the French are notorious for (modern reactor technology) that reduces waste to 10%.