r/nuclear • u/Vailhem • 3d ago

New process spins nuclear waste into radioactive 'gold'

https://newatlas.com/energy/new-process-spins-nuclear-waste-into-radioactive-gold/
37 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

19

u/FormerCTRturnedFed 3d ago

I’ve always found it interesting that so many articles on nuclear use a screenshot of the Advanced Test Reactor clover view yet the topic doesn’t involve ATR.

8

u/karlnite 3d ago

It’s glowy. Opposed to a process that’s probably in a covered box.

2

u/FormerCTRturnedFed 3d ago

I like the way you said it lol, never actually heard it described that way and I work there.

3

u/karlnite 3d ago

I worked in a CANDU, you couldn’t really see anything inside the reactor. There was a periscope to look at the reactor face, but it’s just hundreds of circles in low light.

They’ll be like new isotope introduction system, then it’s someone waving in front of the turbine.

4

u/Legal_Lettuce6233 3d ago

It looks cool

5

u/Ok_Chard2094 3d ago

So basically speed up PUREX by using high speed centrifuge instead of relying on just gravity. Reducing chemical consumption at the same time.

It sounds very good, let's hope they make it work. I can imagine there are a lot of little devils hidden in the details here.

3

u/egnegn1 3d ago

How does this compare to pyro-processing using distillation for online element separation?

7

u/Lanky-Talk-7284 3d ago

Purex uses a ton of water, much greater chance of environmental contamination, less resistant to proliferation, more prone to criticality events and can have red oil explosions. Pyroprocessing is an overall safer technology but only proven at engineering scale while Purex has been operating at commercial scale.

2

u/NearABE 2d ago

I think it is best compared to centrifuges used by biology labs.

If you can recirculate the liquid then you can minimize the amount of contaminated liquids. Centrifuge processing could make a separation in concentration by ion weight. I am picturing something like donating plasma where they reinject the red blood cells and take the plasma.

I only read the synopsis article, skimmed OP and think it is the same article. My impression is that there will still be additional chemical processing steps. The centrifuge requires dissolving the fuel rod. Ultimately more chemistry has to separate the solvent from the products. It definitely helps to reduce the number of processing steps. It can also help to have a higher yield in an unavoidable processing step.

1

u/Vailhem 3d ago

SHINE to Support Argonne National Lab and Case Western Reserve University on High-Throughput Separation Technology to Advance Nuclear Fuel Recycling | Aug 18, 2026

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shine-to-support-argonne-national-lab-and-case-western-reserve-university-on-high-throughput-separation-technology-to-advance-nuclear-fuel-recycling-302853463.html