Countries like the United States produce more than 2,000 tons of nuclear waste per year. The best solution to get rid of them, at least so far, is buried in the depths of the earth. However, two scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believe they have found a better way, not only to eliminate nuclear waste, but also to serve as recycling and clean energy source capable of supplying the entire planet until 2083 .
The usual system for producing nuclear energy is that we all know: radioactive rods are inserted into the reactor core and hence the material can be melted is converted into energy. The problem is that this is not very efficient. During the four years of life that has half of these bars, employs only 3% of the radioactive material it contains. The remaining 97% is waste, which is stored in nuclear waste.
These scientists have got to take advantage from all the energy that they keep. The key is in the molten salt reactor (MSR), which use the same material as a coolant or fuel. Such salts have proven heatsinks much more effective than the helium element used on conventional water jets.
Therefore, unlike the light water reactors, an MSR operates at very high temperatures which allow a high thermodynamic efficiency than atmospheric pressure without firing the mechanical stress of the system. By the middle of the 50 was experienced with this type of reactor, but were too big and heavy, so nobody had noticed this.
Now Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie, MIT, have updated the original experiment technology to build a molten salt reactor also reuses waste, both uranium and thorium. The invention, according to its creators, is able to use up to 98% of the radioactive material remaining in discarded bars for energy, and only with 50% and would be an incredible breakthrough.
Each reactor of this type would cost more than 1,150 million euros and would be able to generate 500 megawatts of energy. But contrary to what it may seem, not expensive: a light-water reactor capable of producing only twice the energy costs more than 5,300 million euros.
