Can Geological Radioactive Waste Disposal Sites Be Used as EGS Sites?

Abstract

With growing concerns about climate change, countries are compelled to seek clean energy sources like geothermal and nuclear for socioeconomic development and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Geothermal and nuclear energies appear to be in the front line since these two sources can supply base load power and mitigate global warming. An inherent problem with nuclear energy is the safe disposal of the highly radioactive waste in geological formations due to the large amount of heat generated by the transuranic radioactive waste. The temperatures often reach 250C around the canisters. When stored in geological formations, these canisters generate energy that could possibly be utilized to generate power using binary technology, similarly to Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). A conceptual design to extract the heat generated by the canisters using heat exchangers and generate electric power is given here. Removal of heat increases the safety of the canister and the surrounding geological Formation and simultaneously providing uninterrupted power supply to the rural masses. Considering India’s granite occurrence and the volume of high level waste generated by the nuclear power plants, this methods seems to be viable and make India energy independent.