Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It results from many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare earth mining, and nuclear weapons reprocessing.
How can nuclear fusion contribute to sustainable energy solutions in the context of increasing electricity demand?
The demand for electricity is increasing due to technologies like electric cars and AI data centers. Nuclear fusion, which fuses atoms to produce heat for generating power, offers a potential source of vast, low-emission energy. However, it is costly because it requires tritium, a rare hydrogen isotope. Researchers are now working on systems to produce tritium from nuclear waste, which could make fusion energy more feasible.
Terence Tarnowsky, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), will present his research on converting nuclear waste into tritium at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2025 meeting, held August 17-21, featuring about 9,000 science presentations.
Currently, nuclear power plants use nuclear fission, where plutonium or uranium atoms split, releasing energy and neutrons to sustain a chain reaction, but this generates long-lived nuclear waste. In contrast, nuclear fusion combines atomic nuclei—specifically isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium—to create energy with minimal radioactive waste, similar to how stars produce energy
While deuterium is abundant, the U.S. lacks a reliable domestic supply of tritium, which is crucial for fusion reactors. Tarnowsky highlights that commercial tritium is extremely expensive—around 15millionperpound(15 million per pound (33 million per kilogram)—and the U.S. currently cannot produce it domestically, leading to a significant supply shortage. Researchers are therefore focusing on converting nuclear waste into tritium to address this challenge.
Industries produce tritium for scientific and commercial use. One way is by bombarding lithium with neutrons. This method creates tritium and helium. Tritium is also collected from heavy water reactors. Plants extract tritium from the water that cools the reactors. These processes produce tritium in controlled amounts for use. Nuclear reactions are a major source of tritium. In nuclear reactors, neutrons react with lithium or boron to make tritium. Fusion experiments also produce tritium. Scientists use tritium as fuel in fusion reactors. These reactions help create tritium for research and energy production.
In conclusion, nuclear fusion holds significant promise as a sustainable energy solution to meet the growing electricity demand driven by advancements in technology. By offering a low-emission power source with the potential for minimal radioactive waste, fusion could revolutionize energy production. However, the challenge of tritium supply remains a major hurdle, as the U.S. currently lacks a domestic source for this essential fuel. Terence Tarnowsky's research into converting nuclear waste into tritium presents a potentially transformative approach to addressing this issue, making fusion energy more feasible and accessible. As research progresses and innovations arise, nuclear fusion could play a crucial role in creating a cleaner and more sustainable energy future.
