At Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, nuclear chemists are researching how to make new fuel from spent nuclear waste. Atomic waste consists of heavy and radioactive substances such as plutonium, americium, curium and neptunium.

- We want to take this pile that is still fissionable and make new fuel from it. It will not be possible to become fully self-sufficient, but we can drive for many thousands of years, says Christian Ekberg, a professor at the Department of Nuclear Chemistry in Gothenburg.

uranium pellets

He holds up a small uranium pellet in his hand.

- As you run nuclear power today, you can get as much energy out of this as if you were to fire 800 liters of oil. But if we were to run generation-four systems, we could extract the equivalent of 64,000 liters of oil, says Christian Ekberg.

Only a few percent of the uranium in the pellet becomes energy and a large part is converted to heavy and radioactive substances such as plutonium.

Stop the circle

Today, Swedish nuclear waste is stored in the intermediate storage facility in Oskarshamn, pending final disposal in the outcrop outside Forsmark. If we develop the fourth generation nuclear power, the waste can instead become fuel.

- We have to stop the circle. It is to take out the spent fuel, utilize what can be reused, make new fuel from it, then re-enter the reactor, and then circulate it here. This has not been done on an industrial scale today, says Christian Ekberg.

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