Is there a role for nuclear energy?

[IQS.RLOW]

I gather you like my avatar then VD?

It's quite accurate isn't it

[Jovial Monk]

All of which relates to nuclear energy how?

The 4th Gen reactors would simply stop working if something like a 9.0 earthquake hit.

A major problem there at the moment is used fuel rods just lying in a pool—they should have been disposed of properly. Broken Hill could take this waste and bury it in the abandoned lead-zinc-silver mines nice and deep below ground level and earn us and BH a motza doing so!

[Viking King.]

All of which relates to nuclear energy how?

The 4th Gen reactors would simply stop working if something like a 9.0 earthquake hit.

A major problem there at the moment is used fuel rods just lying in a pool—they should have been disposed of properly. Broken Hill could take this waste and bury it in the abandoned lead-zinc-silver mines nice and deep below ground level and earn us and BH a motza doing so!

The idea is to keep the active and spent rods as cool as possible, putting them down a disused mine shaft won't help at all, it is hot underground,
one other way "MIGHT" work, deep freeze them, put them on a non returnable rocket, send off to far beyond the other side of the sun, we are already bombarded with space radiations, what might become of spent fuel rods way out there would be nothing should it get around.

[Jovial Monk]

Oh no, shooting fuel rods out into space might work a few times, then a rocket explodes and showers radioactive material, not thanks!

The fuel rods can be reduced in size, will reduce the radioactive reactions heaps and can be stored in watertanks in the mine shafts.

[Viking King.]

Oh no, shooting fuel rods out into space might work a few times, then a rocket explodes and showers radioactive material, not thanks!

The fuel rods can be reduced in size, will reduce the radioactive reactions heaps and can be stored in watertanks in the mine shafts.

True, but they must be kept cool at all times that same way as in the plants when active,
what happens if the cooling system fails and cannot be turned back on due to electical burnout or similar?
There are so many "What if"
As mentioned earlier, the reactor plants are a few gens old, but it is also said that Japan has maintained to the highest degree and more, the safety and integrity of the plants, which is why they as yet have not been exposed or damaged.

[Jovial Monk]

I am pretty sure the spent rods were just kept in a pool on top of reactor 4, no special cooling.

Also, the company running the power station there falsified inspection records over a long period and should have retired some of the reactors by now.

[Viking King.]

I am pretty sure the spent rods were just kept in a pool on top of reactor 4, no special cooling.

Also, the company running the power station there falsified inspection records over a long period and should have retired some of the reactors by now.

I didn't hear it mentioned how many reactors there are, I counted 17 across the islands,
must be at least one for each main island by the looks of it.
If we could find a more efficiant way to look after the rods and a more easier way of cooling, I'm sure the world would go with it and take up nuclear power, but at the mo it is so hard to look after when something does go wrong either natural or neglect.
That's the only part stopping other countries, the "potential hazard"

[Jovial Monk]

Rods are very old stuff, newer reactors don’t use rods.

[Viking King.]

Rods are very old stuff, newer reactors don’t use rods.

Common terminology, same as termites and white ants, termites are termites not ants, they are a cousin to the cockroach but in a court "White ant" is recognised more than the name termite.
What is nuclear fuel called now apart from uranium?

[Jovial Monk]

Again, uranium is on the way out, thorium will be the nuclear fuel of the future. Good thing we have tons of thorium, eh?