Episode 149 features longtime leader from the Department of Energy and now CEO of CURIO Ed McGinnis talking about safely and profitably reprocessing all the "waste" nuclear fuel we have collecting at our many nuclear reactor sites across the country. It turns out most of it can be made into new fuel, and what remains - 3-4% - can be safely disposed of in boreholes.
Ed tells us all that and how the reprocessed fuel not only makes new fuel, but also much-needed isotopes and rare metals as well, and as a result the CURIO process can be very profitable.
Here are the highlights.
Chapters:
00:00 - introduction
01:15 - Ed's thirty years with the DOE
05:15 - the public's understanding of nuclear energy
11:00 - President Carter's ban on nuclear waste reprocessing
14:30 - the CURIO opportunities
15:45 - the problem with PUREX, the old method of reprocessing: it makes weapons-grade plutonium
17:30 - oh, and it uses nitric acid
19:15 - one person's waste is another person's treasure
20:45 - CURIO's way to reduce waste to a 3-4% remnant
22:15 - storage requirements for the remnant
23:30 - isotopes and metals extraction
27:00 - CURIO provides two types of fuel: uranium and proliferation-safe plutonium
33:00 - using the uranium in existing reactors
35:30 - 2-3 scale-ups for CURIO, and full commercialization by 2035
37:00 - using the SpaceX model
There is a whole whale of a lot of detail to all this, so please do tune in for the whole discussion. This is a vital topic for our skyrocketing energy needs and protecting the environment.
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