Input Stories

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility are working on a pair of important projects: generating electricity from spent nuclear fuel while reducing the fuel’s radioactive lifespan (Interesting Engineering).

What’s going on: “The projects are supported by $8.17 million in grants from the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Waste Transmutation Optimized Now program and represent a shift from treating used nuclear fuel as a permanent liability to viewing it as a recyclable fuel source.”

• The scientists are developing accelerator-driven systems technology that uses a particle accelerator to send high-energy protons toward a target, triggering a process called “spallation.”
• Spallation releases neutrons that interact with the long-living isotopes in nuclear waste, effectively “burning” them off.
• Unspent nuclear fuel remains potent for about 100,000 years, but this process reduces that period to 300 years.
• The scientists are also working on adapting the magnetron—the component that powers microwave ovens—to provide the power required for ADS. 

Added benefit: The spallation process generates heat that can be used to create additional electricity.

How they’re doing it: While traditional particle accelerators require expensive cryogenic systems, “Jefferson Lab is pioneering a more cost-effective approach by coating the interior of pure niobium cavities with tin.”

• These cavities can operate at higher temperatures, allowing scientists to use standard cooling units.
• They’re also developing spoke cavities, a complex design intended to make neutron spallation even more efficient.

What it’s aiming to do: “The NEWTON program aims to enable the recycling of the entire US commercial nuclear fuel stockpile within the next 30 years.”