There is a ton of fissile material in most types of nuclear waste which can be recycled and burnt again in conventional reactors. Breeder reactors are able to produce more fissile material than it burns so theoretically they can extract 50x more power from the same slug of fuel than a conventional reactor can. Recycling can significantly decrease the amount and intensity of nuclear waste.
The big problem for both is that you have to do fuel reprocessing, which is not currently economical given the low cost of uranium and reprocessing is how you get plutonium for nuclear weapons so the technology is closely guarded and monitered by the nuclear powers.
France decommissioned theirs in 2010 after finding they were just way too expensive to run. Currently Russia and India still have units (India is building another that should come online this year). Japan did recently as well but it was decommissioned in 2017.
Yup reprocessing and breeders are hard to come by because they can be used to produce weapons grade material and require more "red tape" . The IAEA will be all over a breeder reactor. /Reprocessing plant.
There is a ton of fissile material in most types of nuclear waste which can be recycled and burnt again in conventional reactors. Breeder reactors are able to produce more fissile material than it burns so theoretically they can extract 50x more power from the same slug of fuel than a conventional reactor can. Recycling can significantly decrease the amount and intensity of nuclear waste.
The big problem for both is that you have to do fuel reprocessing, which is not currently economical given the low cost of uranium and reprocessing is how you get plutonium for nuclear weapons so the technology is closely guarded and monitered by the nuclear powers.
I think only the French have had a breeder ...
France decommissioned theirs in 2010 after finding they were just way too expensive to run. Currently Russia and India still have units (India is building another that should come online this year). Japan did recently as well but it was decommissioned in 2017.
Yup reprocessing and breeders are hard to come by because they can be used to produce weapons grade material and require more "red tape" . The IAEA will be all over a breeder reactor. /Reprocessing plant.