Recycling radioactive waste Swiss start-up has a novel solution for nuclear waste disposal
A Swiss start-up wants to use a special reactor to turn nuclear waste back into electricity. This also massively reduces the half-life of the waste. But Switzerland still needs a nuclear waste repository.
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- The Swiss start-up Transmutex is developing a reactor that turns nuclear waste back into electricity.
- After this process, the radiation should decrease much faster. After 500 years, the residual materials would be harmless - instead of the 200,000 years that high-level nuclear waste requires.
- It would take 50 years to convert all of Switzerland's nuclear waste into electricity using the process known as "transmutation" and would generate as much electricity as the Leibstadt nuclear power plant would in the same period.
Is this the solution to two of Switzerland's energy supply problems? The Geneva-based start-up Transmutex promises something that can be read as such: It wants to generate electricity again from nuclear waste - more precisely, spent fuel rods. After recycling, they would also emit so much less radiation that they would be harmless after 500 years.
Those responsible have been working on their vision since 2019. A representative recently presented the plan in Stadel ZH, the site where the Swiss deep geological repository for nuclear waste is to be built. The NZZ attended the presentation.
The technology is not new. In the 1990s, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Carlo Rubbia designed a nuclear reactor that bombards highly radioactive substances with electrons, transforming them into medium- to low-radiation substances. As in conventional nuclear reactors, this produces heat that can be converted into electricity. The principle is called transmutation and was already described in theory in the 1960s, as the science magazine Quarks explains.
Final disposal would still be necessary
This also explains where the company name Transmutex comes from. Incidentally, the method differs significantly from the reprocessing of spent fuel rods. These merely combine leftover fissile material to form new fuel rods, as physicist Harald Lesch explains.
The idea behind Transmutex is to use the nuclear waste produced in Switzerland to generate electricity again. The benefits of the method for final storage are even greater.
The problem with the permanent, safe storage of nuclear waste is not just that wherever a site is sought, people will do everything they can to ensure that the radioactive waste is not stored in the ground. It is at least as great a challenge to ensure that in 100,000 years' time, no one will have the idea of digging up the radioactive materials again and causing a catastrophe.
However, once the spent fuel rods have been processed by Transmutex, after 500 years they will only emit as much radiation as natural uranium and will be harmless. However, a safe deep geological repository would still be needed.
Power of a nuclear power plant, fed with waste
According to the company's calculations, it would take around 50 years to convert the nuclear waste that has already accumulated and is still accumulating in Switzerland. This method is, at least in theory, the cleanest way of phasing out nuclear power because it leaves behind the least hazardous material.
In addition, according to Transmutex, the amount of electricity that could be generated from Swiss nuclear waste over the 50 years would be roughly the same as that generated by the Leibstadt nuclear power plant over the same period. The Swiss energy system would therefore benefit from an additional source of electricity before nuclear power is finally phased out.
The plants that Transmutex wants to build would also be much cheaper than the new nuclear power plants that certain energy politicians are calling for. It would cost around six billion Swiss francs to build the necessary plants and operate them until there is no more nuclear waste. By comparison, the cost of decommissioning all Swiss nuclear power plants is estimated at CHF 23 billion.
The plants would also generate added value by selling electricity and supplying fissile material, which is used in medicine to irradiate tumors.
A change in the law would be needed
In Switzerland, however, there is a catch: the law prohibits the construction of new nuclear power plants. This would have to be dropped before Transmutex could realize its plans. However, this is exactly what a popular initiative wants and it cannot be ruled out that Switzerland, in view of the energy discussions of recent years, would reverse the decision to phase out nuclear power, which was also decided in a referendum.
The nuclear start-up is already trying to obtain a permit for the construction of plants in the USA. The Transmutex representative reports in the NZZ that other countries are interested in its technology. He has also already received financing offers. The company's website lists various investors.
Nagra, which is responsible for the final disposal of nuclear waste, will soon be submitting an application for the construction of a repository in Stadel, Zurich. If everything goes according to plan, the residues from Swiss nuclear power plants would be stored there from 2050.
Transmutex therefore still has some time to realize its project. This company also has to find locations where people are prepared to accept a nuclear facility in their neighborhood. In addition, they would have to develop everything from scratch and could not rely on any established procedures, emphasizes the Transmutex representative. The idea of transmutaion of nuclear waste is captivating. But implementing it will certainly not be a walk in the park.