Turning Nuclear Waste into Glass

By: Ashutosh Goel

2 About Me

Ashutosh Goel ● 39 years old; married and have 2 kids - a son (10 y) and a daughter (9 y). ● Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at Rutgers; love to study different types of glasses ● My favorite glass is “obsidian”

Ask A Geologist Series 3 Nuclear energy

How many things around you Where does this Look around you use electricity? electricity come from?

More than 20% of the electricity used in the United States comes from nuclear energy.

Ask A Geologist Series 4 Nuclear weapons

Nuclear explosion “Little boy” atomic bomb “Fat man” atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945 in August 1945

In the United States, we have 3,800 nuclear weapons, as of 2019.

Ask A Geologist Series 5 Nuclear medicine

In the United States, more than 15 million procedures are performed every year using nuclear medicine.

Ask A Geologist Series 6 Nuclear waste

Nuclear power Nuclear weapons Nuclear medicine What is the price that humans pay for producing this type of energy, weapons and medicines?

It is the generation of nuclear waste.

Ask A Geologist Series 7 What is nuclear waste?

Everything in our world is Nuclear power happens when Fission happens inside the made up of atoms, which are atoms are split apart. This nuclear reactors. super small. process is called fission.

Nuclear power plants do not cause air pollution but the material that is left inside the nuclear reactor after fission happens is called nuclear waste. Ask A Geologist Series 8 Is nuclear waste dangerous?

When you throw away a An apple’s A red solo cup Nuclear waste takes thousands piece of paper, it takes core takes takes 500 or even millions of years to paper about a month to more than 6 years to decompose. Above all, nuclear decompose, or months to decay. waste is radioactive. breakdown and decay. decay. Radioactive materials emit high-energy radiation. The energy produced by radioactive materials can kill cells, cause cancer, and a lot of other damage to living beings.

Ask A Geologist Series 9 Hanford site

Ask A Geologist Series 10 Nuclear waste at Hanford site The Hanford site in Washington State is home to 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. The waste is stored in 177 underground steel tanks.

Steel tanks under “Fat man” atomic bomb “Trinity” - World’s first nuclear construction at Hanford site dropped on Nagasaki, Japan explosion in July 1945 in 1970s in August 1945

The plutonium used in the world's first nuclear explosion (codenamed “Trinity”) at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945, and in the second atomic bomb (codenamed “Fat Man”) came from Hanford. Ask A Geologist Series 11 Why did we produce so much nuclear waste?

1939: They went to Albert Einstein

"Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would have never lifted a finger." - Albert Einstein

Ask A Geologist Series 12 Can we leave this nuclear waste in the tanks forever? We do not want to leave this dangerous and hazardous waste for our next generation, i.e., for our children.

Ask A Geologist Series 13 Can we shoot nuclear waste into Sun or Space?

It’s a great idea, but,

- even 0.1% failure in the rocket launch will have 56,000 gallons of radioactive waste spilled all over the Earth.

Ask A Geologist Series 14 Turning nuclear waste to glass

Let’s turn nuclear waste to glass.

Ask A Geologist Series 15 Why glass? Glass has a flexible structure. Therefore, it can accommodate a lot of elements its Glass is very durable. body.

Ask A Geologist Series 16 How do we make glass? We learnt it from Mother Nature.

Ask A Geologist Series 17 How do we make glass in lab?

Ask A Geologist Series 18 Waste Treatment Plant (WTP)

- The federal government is building a Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at Hanford site in Washington.

- The WTP covers 67 acres of area - that is bigger than 50 soccer fields combined.

- The cost of building this plant is more than $17 billion.

- We expect the process of converting nuclear waste to glass to start by 2022. An aerial view of the WTP at Hanford site (under construction), c. 2018

Ask A Geologist Series 19 Is it easy to make glass out of nuclear waste?

A lot of scientists and engineers in the US and around the world are working hard to solve the problems so that we can convert this waste to glass, and make World a cleaner and better place.

20 Ashutosh Goel Associate Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Email: [email protected] 21