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Added youtube lazy embed helper and applied everywhere.
Apparently Lighthouse now recommends doing this to improve page load speed so I just did it everywhere.
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_calcs/energy-in-a-55-gallon-drum.md

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date: 2023-04-29
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byline: true
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image: "/img/one-drum-text.jpg"
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factlets:
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- If a 55-gallon drum was actually filled with spent fuel, it would have generated
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enough electricity to power 60,000 average US households for a year.
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- If a 55-gallon drum was actually filled with spent fuel, it would represent 55 million lbs
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of CO₂ that didn't get emitted.
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factlets:
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- If a 55-gallon drum was actually filled with spent fuel, it would have generated
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enough electricity to power 60,000 average US households for a year.
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- If a 55-gallon drum was actually filled with spent fuel, it would represent 55 million lbs
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of CO₂ that didn't get emitted.
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---
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<div class="row">
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<div class="col-lg-8" markdown="1">
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{% imagesize /img/one-drum-text.jpg:props %}
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alt="A barrel in front of 60,000 houses"/></a>
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<figure>
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<iframe class="img-fluid" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u-VaS14Ls8U"
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title="Barrel of waste video" allow="accelerometer; autoplay;
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clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share"
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allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<div class="ratio ratio-16x9">
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{% include youtube.html id="u-VaS14Ls8U" title="Barrel of waste video" %}
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</div>
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<figcaption class="figure-caption">A video version of this with
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slightly higher numbers (it assumes a brand new AP1000 reactor with higher
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burnup fuel rather than average discharge fuel).</figcaption>
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</figure>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>

_calcs/how-much-waste.md

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title: How much nuclear waste is there?
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category: physics
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description: >
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How much nuclear waste has been made in the USA? If you were to stack it up on a
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football field, how high would the nuclear waste be?
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How much nuclear waste has been made in the USA? If you were to stack it up on a
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football field, how high would the nuclear waste be?
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author: nick
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image: "/img/all-waste-fps_sm.jpg"
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date: 2023-02-19
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byline: true
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factlets:
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- All the spent nuclear fuel in the USA would fit on a football field
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in fully-shielded dry casks stacked 135 meters (148 yards) high.
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- All the spent nuclear fuel in the USA would fit on a football field
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stacked as pellets 3 meter (3.3 yards) high
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- All the fission products in spent nuclear fuel in the USA would fit on a
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football field stacked 15 cm (5.9 inches) high
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factlets:
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- All the spent nuclear fuel in the USA would fit on a football field
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in fully-shielded dry casks stacked 135 meters (148 yards) high.
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- All the spent nuclear fuel in the USA would fit on a football field
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stacked as pellets 3 meter (3.3 yards) high
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- All the fission products in spent nuclear fuel in the USA would fit on a
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football field stacked 15 cm (5.9 inches) high
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---
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<div class="row">
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<div class="col-lg-8" markdown="1">
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doing the math and giving a verifiable answer to how much waste there is in the
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USA relative to a football field.
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(If you just want to know what nuclear waste is and what's to be done about it, go
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(If you just want to know what nuclear waste is and what's to be done about it, go
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to [our nuclear waste page]({% link waste.md %}).)
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# How many dry casks could store all US waste?
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In motion:
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J1QydqOFZF4"
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title="Waste storage casks stacked" allow="accelerometer; autoplay;
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clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"
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allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<div class="ratio ratio-16x9">
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{% include youtube.html id="J1QydqOFZF4" title="Waste storage casks stacked" %}
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</div>
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# How much actual used fuel material is in those casks?
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Given the facts below, we can estimate that there are 93,220 tonnes of initial uranium
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discharged. The oxygen in UO₂ weighs something, so this comes out to 105.7e3 MT of UO2.
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This is about 9.35 billion fuel pellets. You can fit 9600 fuel pellets between
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This is about 9.35 billion fuel pellets. You can fit 9600 fuel pellets between
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goal lines of a football field, and 5123 pellets between the sidelines. To fit all
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9.35 billion pellets, you'd have to stack them 191 levels high, which checks in as
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a **stack of spent fuel pellets 3.0 meters tall** (3.3 yards/9.84 feet/118 inches).
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link recycling.md %}). Only the fuel atoms that have actually fissioned into fission
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products are truly spent. Typical US reactors do not recycle their used fuel (French ones
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do recycle theirs at least once). If we melt the used fuel pellets and recycle them,
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only the fission products are left over.
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only the fission products are left over.
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Typical reactors get about 50 MWd/kg out of their fuel on average, which represents
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roughly 5% of the total nuclear energy in each pellet. The rest is regular U-238, which is
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The following facts were used to derive the conclusions on this page.
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* An American football field [is 100 yards (91.44m )by 53.3 yards (48.8 m) between the
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- An American football field [is 100 yards (91.44m )by 53.3 yards (48.8 m) between the
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goalposts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_field). The [goal posts
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are](https://www.stack.com/a/the-dimensions-of-a-football-field/) 30 feet high and 18.5
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feet wide.
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* [The EIA says](https://www.eia.gov/nuclear/spent_fuel/) that, as of Dec 2017, there are
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* 157,681 BWR discharged assemblies + 18,000/3.5 per year
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* 119,198 PWR assemblies + 14,313/3.5 per year
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* 80,000 MTU spent fuel + 9524/3.5 per year
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* A typical PWR assembly has a 17x17 array of fuel pins
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* A typical BWR assembly has a 10x10 array of fuel pins
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- [The EIA says](https://www.eia.gov/nuclear/spent_fuel/) that, as of Dec 2017, there are
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- 157,681 BWR discharged assemblies + 18,000/3.5 per year
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- 119,198 PWR assemblies + 14,313/3.5 per year
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- 80,000 MTU spent fuel + 9524/3.5 per year
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- A typical PWR assembly has a 17x17 array of fuel pins
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- A typical BWR assembly has a 10x10 array of fuel pins
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For a typical spent fuel dry cask, we found good information on the Holtec HI-STORM 100.
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Info about the cask system, including all shielding:
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* It can hold:
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* 24 standard PWR assemblies, or
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* 68 standard BWR assemblies
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* Its outer diameter is 131 inches (3.3m)
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* Its height is 231 inches (5.86 m)
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- It can hold:
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- 24 standard PWR assemblies, or
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- 68 standard BWR assemblies
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- Its outer diameter is 131 inches (3.3m)
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- Its height is 231 inches (5.86 m)
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* Thus, we can estimate that in 2023, there are enough fuel assemblies to fill:
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* 5819 dry casks with PWR assemblies
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* 2697 dry casks with BWR assemblies
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* Total casks: 8516
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- Thus, we can estimate that in 2023, there are enough fuel assemblies to fill:
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- 5819 dry casks with PWR assemblies
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- 2697 dry casks with BWR assemblies
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- Total casks: 8516
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As for the nuclear fuel pellets themselves:
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* Uranium oxide mass density is about 10 grams/cm³
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* A [single pellet](https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/pellet-fuel.html)
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- Uranium oxide mass density is about 10 grams/cm³
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- A [single pellet](https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/pellet-fuel.html)
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is 3/8" OD and 5/8" high, (9.525e-3 m OD, 1.587e-2m high)
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* Thus, the volume of a single pellet is 1.131e-6 m³
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* The UO2 mass in a single pellet is about 11.3 grams
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* The uranium elemental mass in a single fresh pellet is about 10.0 grams
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* Typical PWRs and BWRs fission about 5-6% of their uranium atoms before being
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- Thus, the volume of a single pellet is 1.131e-6 m³
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- The UO2 mass in a single pellet is about 11.3 grams
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- The uranium elemental mass in a single fresh pellet is about 10.0 grams
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- Typical PWRs and BWRs fission about 5-6% of their uranium atoms before being
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discharged in the USA.
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</div>
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</div>
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