Assertion Supported
Shafer: TerraPower and Oklo sodium fast reactors will require waste conditioning
“Any of the sodium fast reactor designs, so your TerraPower, your Oklo, things of this nature, this would be A conversation where you need to have, at a minimum, a waste conditioning component to this, and if you're a company like Oklo, that's very much thinkin…”
Opinion
Shafer: Used nuclear fuel still holds massive untapped energy value
“I don't think about it as nuclear waste, I think about it as use nuclear fuel, because there's actually a lot of energy value with respect to that”
Insight
Shafer: TRISO fuel resists leaching, whereas molten salts require waste conditioning
“Triso, again, is a wonderful waste form for all the reasons that people love it as a fuel form, right? The radioactive material is not getting out when it's reacting in the reactor, and it's not getting out when it's Sitting on the side of the building. Howeve…”
Opinion
Shafer: States will successfully block nuclear waste transit if they oppose it
“If a state does not want you to move nuclear material through the state, it will find a way for you to not move nuclear material through the state”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Shafer: Nevada will likely not agree to host a nuclear repository again
“I would be surprised if Nevada ends up stepping forward into this space again as far as, you know, there's conversations with respect to that being of consideration, etc.”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: Yucca Mountain would already be legally full if opened today
“Right now, if Yucca Mountain was opened we had a 70, a legal limit of Yucca Mountain of 70,000 metric tons of material, right? So, at 90,000 metric tons, Yucca Mountain would nominally be full, right?”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: Yucca Mountain had a statutory 10,000-year management obligation
“The legal limit on Yucca Mountain was a 10,000 year management, you know, obligation.”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: US holds 90,000 tons of nuclear waste, adding 2,000 annually
“It's about 90,000 metric tons. We generate about 2000 metric tons a year.”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: Yucca Mountain remains the legal US nuclear waste repository
“Yucca Mountain is still actually the law of the land in the U.S. This is what is in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: Spent commercial nuclear fuel is 95% uranium and 5% byproducts
“The uranium composition, as far as the actual irradiated meat, ends up being about 95% of the material, and then the other five percent are these fission products that grow in over the course of the irradiation, as well as the, what I call the transmutation pr…”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: US Nuclear Waste Fund holds roughly $50 billion in unspent fees
“And there's anywhere from about, we'll say about fifty billion dollars within that fee that's been paid forward.”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: Spent nuclear fuel requires roughly a decade in pools before dry storage
“So you let that happen, and that happens maybe for a decade or so. And then you're in the position where you can take the material out, And put it in these dry storage casts, right?”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: Dry concrete nuclear waste casks require no active management
“Well, I mean, the concrete cask, once it cools to that point, that's very passive. That is something that you don't need to actively manage”
Assertion Supported
Shafer: Tripling nuclear power generates 6,000–8,000 metric tons of waste annually
“Especially if you're seriously thinking about tripling or quadrupling nuclear, you end up in a scenario where you're not actually talking about 2000 metric tons of material. Per year, you're talking about six to 8000 metric tons of material per year.”
