How to Power the World With Nuclear Waste | Nat Geo Live

I’m here because I’m designing

a type of nuclear reactor that can run

entirely on nuclear waste.

It’s able to consume the waste.

So it actually turns it into

a clean and carbon-free source of electric power.

We started developing this design

for a nuclear reactor that can consume the existing stockpiles

of nuclear waste, of used nuclear fuel.

And we started a company to commercialize the design.

It’s able to reduce the waste’s lifetime and break it down

and use it to generate enormous amounts of electric power.

So, just to put some numbers on it.

If you take all 270,000 metric tons of nuclear waste

that exists worldwide

it’s about a football field’s worth of nuclear waste

that exists worldwide.

We can turn it into enough electricity

to power the entire world for 72 years.

Even taking into account increasing electricity demand.

So, it’s just a staggering amount of electricity

that’s left in this waste.

And I think that there’s a possibility

to start thinking of it as a resource to be tapped

rather than a liability to be disposed of

without any further thought.