Nuclear Waste: The Dark Side of the Microreactor Boom
Microreactors, a new form of nuclear technology, are being touted for their lower costs and smaller size, but they produce a significantly higher volume of nuclear waste.
Despite concerns about nuclear waste, the development and deployment of microreactors continue to gain momentum, driven in part by the growing energy needs of AI.
Nuclear energy is ready for its close-up. After decades of steep decline in the sector and relatively high levels of public mistrust for the controversial technology, the tides are turning in favor of a nuclear energy renaissance. The public memory of disasters like Fukushima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl is fading, and the benefits of nuclear – a zero-carbon, baseload energy source – are getting harder to ignore as deadlines for climate commitments grow closer and energy demand ticks ever higher. But the future of the nuclear energy sector will look a bit different than its last boom time, from technological advances to the makeup of its biggest backers.
In Russia and Asia, nuclear energy has stayed popular, but in the West, nuclear had almost entirely fallen out of favor up until the last few years. In the United States, the Biden administration helped to build momentum for a nuclear comeback through its flagship Inflation Reduction Act, which included tax breaks and other incentives for various nodes of the nuclear sector. Over in Europe, nuclear advocates are trying to push through policy supporting nuclear power as Europe reconfigures its energy landscape to contend with energy sanctions on Russia. Public opinion in the West is also shifting in favor of nuclear power. As of 2023, a Gallup poll showed that support for nuclear energy in the United States was at a 10-year high.
Some of the biggest proponents of the nuclear energy renaissance are big tech bigwigs, who point to the power source as a critical solution to feed the runaway power demand of Artificial Intelligence. In fact, the growth trend of data centers’ energy demand is so extreme that it will soon outstrip the United States’ production potential if nuclear energy – and a host of other low-carbon solutions – are not utilized, and soon. Tech bigwigs, therefore, have good reason to back nuclear energy – oh, and they also just so happen to be behind a rash of nuclear energy startups.
But the new kind of nuclear that these companies are trying to bring onto the scene will not be the same as the nuclear technologies that had so solidly fallen out of favor over the last few decades. Traditional nuclear energy has a number of drawbacks, most notably its extremely high up-front costs and the additional costly burden of storing hazardous nuclear waste. New nuclear advocates want to confront the former challenge by rolling out much smaller versions of nuclear reactors, which can essentially be mass-produced and then installed on site for much lower development costs.
Currently, the industry is undergoing a competitive race to corner the market on nuclear microreactors, which are about the size of a shipping container and function somewhat like a giant battery pack. “Microreactors have the ability to provide clean energy and have passive safety features, which decrease the risk of radioactive releases,” Euro News recently reported. “They are also much cheaper than bigger plants as they are factory-built and then installed where they are needed in modules.”
These microreactors can be used in a huge range of applications and do not require any on-site workers for their operation and maintenance. Instead, they can be operated remotely and autonomously. As a result, they have much lower overhead costs as well as lower up-front costs. So what’s the downside?
Well, it’s a big one. Scientists have found that, contrary to what nuclear advocates have touted, small nuclear reactors produce extremely high levels of nuclear waste, and could even be worse for the planet than their full-sized predecessors. “Our results show that most small modular reactor designs will actually increase the volume of nuclear waste in need of management and disposal, by factors of 2 to 30,” said Stanford study lead author Lindsay Krall. “These findings stand in sharp contrast to the cost and waste reduction benefits that advocates have claimed for advanced nuclear technologies.”Some members of the scientific community have taken notice: “Say no to small modular reactors,” blasted a recent headline from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
However, the voices decrying the rollout of small- and microreactors seem to be in the minority, as the Silicon Valley-backed industry barrels full speed ahead. Countries across Europe have jumped into the race as well, and its high levels of momentum – fuelled by the seemingly unstoppable expansion of AI – are unlikely to be impeded by the scientists yelling doomsday warning, however well-founded, from the sidelines.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
Sweden has commenced construction of a final storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, where highly radioactive waste will be stored for 100,000 years. Currently, there are thousands of metric tons of used solid fuel from nuclear power plants worldwide and millions of liters of radioactive liquid waste from weapons production sitting in temporary storage containers, some of which have begun leaking their toxic contents. Nuclear waste is notorious for the fact that it can remain dangerously radioactive for many thousands of years.
"It is hard to exaggerate the significance for Sweden and for the climate transition of the fact that the building of the final repository is under way," Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari told Reuters. "They said it wouldn't work, but it does."
Sweden’s nuclear waste facility is only the second in the world after Finland last year built the world’s first deep-earth repository where it will bury nuclear waste for 100,000 years starting 2026. Dubbed ‘‘Onkalo’’, Finland’s repository is entombed in a bedrock more than 400 meters below the forests of southwest Finland. The facility sits atop a warren of tunnels sited next to three nuclear reactors on the island of Olkiluoto, approximately 240 kilometers from the capital of Helsinki. The Onkalo project is based on the so-called “KBS-3” method developed by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company. KBS-3 is based on a multi-barrier principle whereby if one of the engineered barriers were to fail, the isolation of the radioactive waste is not compromised.
“Basically, the Onkalo project is that we are building an encapsulation plant and disposal facility for spent fuel. And it’s not temporary, it’s for good,” Pasi Tuohimaa, head of communications for Posiva, told CNBC via videoconference. Posiva is tasked with the responsibility of handling the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel rods at Onkalo.
The first-of-its-kind geological disposal facility has been hailed as a game-changer that’s likely to increase the appeal of nuclear energy, “Having a solution for the final disposal of spent fuel was like the missing part of the sustainable lifecycle for nuclear energy,” Tuohimaa said. According to Finnish Climate Minister Kai Mykkänen, Onkala provides the world with a model for sustainable nuclear waste management.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
Sweden breaks ground for used fuel repository
Ground work has begun for the construction of a final repository for used nuclear fuel in Forsmark, in Östhammar municipality, radioactive waste management company Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB announced.
Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB) applied in 2011 to the Land and Environmental Court in Nacka district court for permission to dispose of used nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. The court then prepared the application, held a longer main hearing in 2017 and submitted its opinion to the government in 2018. The government decided on 27 January 2022 that the activity was permissible according to Sweden's Environmental Code.
In October last year, the Land and Environmental Court granted SKB permission and determined the conditions that will apply to the business. An enforcement order also issued by the court means SKB could start initial work even if the judgment is appealed at the Svea Court of Appeal.
SKB announced that Minister of Climate and Environment Romina Pourmokhtari represented the government on site and broke ground today.
"It is a historic day for the Swedish nuclear waste programme. We are taking an important step and breaking ground for a final solution for the spent nuclear fuel," said SKB CEO Stefan Engdahl. "We are thus creating good conditions for continued fossil-free electricity production."
A visualisation of the completed repository (Image: SKB)
The construction of the used fuel repository will take ten years before deposition can begin, SKB said, after which the repository will be gradually expanded over a long period of time. Two years of surface work will now begin, including the construction of rock storage and water treatment facilities, a canister bridge over the cooling water canal and forest clearance. After that, rock work will begin down into the bedrock.
In order for SKB to be able to start the tunneling itself, an approved safety report from the Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) is required. SSM will continue the step-by-step examination of the final repository according to the Act on Nuclear Activities.
The permit for the repository applies to radioactive waste from the 12 reactors (six reactors in operation) that are part of the ongoing Swedish nuclear power programme. It does not apply to waste from a possible new nuclear power programme. SKB may deposit approximately 6000 canisters with approximately 12,000 tonnes of nuclear waste at a depth of about 500 metres in the final repository.
The above-ground part of the repository will occupy an area of about 24 hectares (60 acres), whilst once completed, the repository will comprise more than six kilometers of underground tunnels.
A similar geological repository for used fuel is being built at Olkiluoto in Finland. The Finnish government granted a construction licence for that project in November 2015 and construction work on the repository started a year later. Posiva has applied for an operating licence for the facility to the end of 2070.
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