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2007 ENERGY TOUR: Day 1 June 25, 2007
 Today we visited Idaho National Laboratory (INL) www.inl.gov/ at their EBR1 facility. EBR1 stands for Experimental Breeder Reactor One. It is called a breeder reactor because more fuel can be created through the fission process. This facility is the first nuclear power plant in the world. We had an excellent tour guide that took us through this National Historic Building.
We learned about how nuclear generated power works, what the advantages and disadvantages are, and the history and future direction of nuclear technology. We had the opportunity to stand on an old nuclear reactor, see the cooling pipes and control room and learn about Arco, Idaho, the first city in the world to be powered by nuclear generated electricity. Fifty-two nuclear reactors have been built at INL, these were test reactors to test making nuclear power generation safe.
Submarines use nuclear power generation and don't have to have their fuel changed. When the submarine is decommissioned the fuel is sent to INL. The spent fuel used to be reprocessed, but is now sent to INL for storage. It is stored in water, which is the best storage method for nuclear materials because it is inexpensive, easy to clean up and it works well.
There are three types of radioactive waste:
- Low Level - Waste from nuclear processes containing very low amounts of radioactivity, requiring essentially no shielding or heat removal. This comprises 90% of nuclear waste
- Transuranic - Nuclides with an atomic number greater than uranium (i.e., greater than 92). The principal transuranics are neptunium (No. 93), plutonium (No. 94), and americium (No. 95). Most transuranic wastes are created when spent fuel is reprocessed. Because the USA does not reprocess there is not much of this waste.
- High Level - Highly radioactive solid material that results from chemical reprocessing of spent fuel from a nuclear fission reactor. HLW consists mainly of fission products, but also trace amounts of uranium and plutonium, plus other transuranic elements.
http://www.ans.org/pi/resources/glossary/
 If all nuclear waste in the United States was put it all in one spot it could be fit in a football field about 6 feet deep. The technology is available to reprocess or recycle nuclear waste and this would reduce the amount of waste significantly and reduce the radioactive half-life to well within a human lifetime.
The most exciting thing we learned while at INL was the reprocessing/recycling technology. Other countries are using this technology successfully thereby reducing nuclear waste, security concerns, and potential danger from nuclear power. If the United States used this technology nuclear power generation could be used as a cleaner energy than our current fossil fuel based power generation. EBR1 is open to the public and well worth the visit. See more details about nuclear power on the EAO nuclear page.
See more details about nuclear power on the EAO nuclear page.
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