Another Bad Idea for Used Nuclear Fuel From Germany.
The bad idea is burying it.
The paper discussing the idea of burying important and valuable actinides is here: Np(V) Retention at the Illite du Puy Surface Bianca Schacherl, Claudia Joseph, Aaron Beck, Polina Lavrova, Andreas Schnurr, Kathy Dardenne, Frank Geyer, Zara Cherkezova-Zheleva, Jörg Göttlicher, Horst Geckeis, and Tonya Vitova Environmental Science & Technology 2023 57 (30), 11185-11194.
As I noted some time back here - the links to the graphics are dead - the bare sphere critical mass of neptunium is around 57 kg.
Experimental Determination of the Bare Sphere Critical Mass of Neptunium-237.
The ability to form a critical mass, the relatively low melting point of neptunium, as well as the ability to make a lower melting eutectic with plutonium, make neptunium a valuable resource for future generations as a fuel with special properties, and will help provide them the energy they will need if they ever are able to make a stab at cleaning up our mess.
German fear of nuclear energy has been a very big player in the crime against humanity known as climate change.
Neptunium is a gift to future generations and dumping it is an idea that should be, but isn't somehow, an example of contempt for energy justice, where the victims of the injustice are future generations.
Have a nice day tomorrow.
