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In European discourse green transition is about solar power plants, windmills, and natural gas, yet not particularly about nuclear energy; the disaster in Fukushima erased it from the green transformation map and it took time to have it back. Yet, nuclear is coming, and it’s safer and more reliable than ever before. It is not only the calling deadlines and war in Ukraine but also recent technological advancements that are making it a reasonable choice for many countries.

In Europe, each country has its strategy, for example, Poland as a country bordering Russia, seeks to diversify its energy sources and strives for maximum independence; and recently it has signed a contract to build its first nuclear power plant, which is also a case for Turkey. France is following a similar trajectory, modernizing its nuclear capabilities. However, there is also Germany, which decided to withdraw from its nuclear path and focus on natural gas, solar, and wind energy.

As we can see, the landscape of the European energy sector is complex, however, there is one common factor that connects all the economies of the old continent, and it is sustainability. Here, the recent nuclear technological breakthroughs have a lot to offer, as wastes produced as a byproduct in the power plants, can be finally reintroduced to the economy in the form of batteries; making the whole nuclear energy generation process, a closed cycle and sustainable. Nevertheless, the manufacturing facilities that are needed to make it happen, have been closed and today, the majority of the necessary industry is outside of Europe.

What is striking is that Europe, very often, has the intellectual capabilities to develop an independent green economy solution, but due to decades of exporting production to China, has become unable to put those concepts to work. It is, due to, the social contract, but also due to already established value chains.

One may argue that it's not the fault of outsourced manufacturing to China, that is making it impossible to create a truly green and sustainable Europe. That’s true, yet it is a crucial factor, as in the context of nuclear energy, the fragments of the nuclear wastes that are particularly important are the capsules consisting of Americium-241 and these are being extracted only in China, but even that is not the biggest pain. The true problem is human nature, namely, when the Polish scientists developing the aforementioned technology, wanted to communicate with their Chinese friends - they encountered significant obstacles in communication and mutual understanding; even when referred to the Polish Chamber of Trade with China, they received information that it is not doable, from the Polish side, to help them. As we can see, the problem seems trivial, but shows the real struggles that we are facing; it is not the technological impossibility preventing us from true breakthroughs, but rather a simple lack of willingness and cultural differences.

In that regard, knowing what obstacles we are facing in the micro picture, we will look at the Social, Political, and Geostrategic perspectives, to grasp the macro view on the challenges and opportunities, of introducing batteries made of nuclear wastes into the European economy to help transition to green energy.

Social dimension

The idea of reintroducing waste into the economy is tightly aligned with the closed philosophy of not producing any more waste. This is particularly important, socially, as one of the toughest arguments against nuclear energy is that it is not recyclable and that it only produces more waste; therefore, a solution that busts this argument is a true groundbreaker. It is also a matter of giving the example for other traditionally very conservative industries that sustainability does not have to mean closing certain economic sectors, but rather reinventing them. Developing technology that is in line with the continental philosophy for sustainability is also a sign, that no one will be left behind and that this will be a just transition, which has also the potential to strengthen European solidarity and a sharp common vision for the future.

Political dimension

Politically it is a solution, that might accelerate of green transition, as it bides the two very important aspects of European politics, which are security and sustainability. On the one hand, we have central-eastern Europe, which is not in Favor of drastic transitions, but rather a step-by-step approach that might be too slow. Yet, their argument is they need to cope with military expenses to mitigate the geopolitical threats from the East and only then go for a more decisive approach toward transition. They say: “Once we are ready, we can do it”. On the other hand, there is extreme pressure from the Western EU countries to get rid of coal mines and go 100% green as soon as possible. While the west of the continent is in a good position in the value chain, to run the transition, the early 2000s commers are stuck in the middle-income trap, and their societies, are still on the make. Moreover, the nature of threats for each of the sides is very different. For ones e.g. Poles, it is an existential threat, for Germans it is a threat of breaking a social contract. That said, it is not a bravado to look at recyclable nuclear waste - as an innovation that connects the European continent and has the potential to become ubiquitous. It is hardly imaginable that the German economy will go back to nuclear, however, using already existing know-how and intellectual potential of the German state, it is imaginable for Germans to take part in nuclear renewables projects, as it is a win-win situation. For central Europe on the other hand, that makes sense from the knowledge transfer perspective where the exchange of experience and cooperation takes place. This framework could be then used by the bodies of the European Union to promote the security standards and collaboration framework on the international stage.

Geostrategic dimension

From a geostrategy perspective, thinking of homegrown and home-maintained technology is perfectly aligned with the de-risking strategy. Europe is struggling to balance its economic interest with its need for a strategic economy (Europe's self-sufficiency). By harnessing the byproducts of its nuclear energy sector, Europe is taking a significant step towards reducing reliance on external sources for critical technology components, particularly in the field of energy storage. It also has the potential to reduce the reliance on batteries made from critical raw materials (Scaroni, Paolo, et al.). It could potentially shift the balance of power in the global energy landscape; considering that actual political significance in a region is connected to the availability of raw materials and energy sources, we could argue that the role of Russia in the economy of the EU would not be that significant as it is today if nuclear batteries would exist. One may argue, that this is only a fragrance of the energy mix, and the number of sensors powered by nuclear batteries would be too small, to cause a meaningful difference, however, these batteries would be used in crucial sectors, such as space, what we will discuss in the next part of the text.

Other crucial domains where nuclear batteries despite their limited quantity would have truly qualitative results are the projects focused on monitoring the Amazon Forest and Deep Ocean exploration.

Although these areas seem to be distant from nuclear waste, it is not a mistake to perceive them as the sources of future European worldwide influences, if established correctly; Europe historically known as a science exporter, can now, re-established itself in a world-dominated by American and Chinese innovation.

Space

Radium Energy, run by Tomasz A. Miś, is a startup that is developing a technology, which is an attractive alternative to currently used devices. NASA usually uses solar panels to power, the on-sat devices, however, due to the physics of the space domain, there are always certain places, where using solar power is simply impractical; in some cases NASA uses, so-called RTGs, however, in the strategic missions, focused on deep space exploration, namely, beyond-Jupiter missions, RTGs are prone to significant loss of efficiency, which is not a case for batteries on which Radium Energy is working on.

The development of such a battery makes it a step towards the goal of an independent European Space Sector. It is particularly important, in the light of political happenings, making the European space sector not able to launch their rockets into orbit, as Russia withdrew their Soyuz 2, as an answer to western sanctions. The fact that technology that served for decades in Europe in the form of Ariana Rocket got old and inefficient in comparison with Indian or American alternatives, also adds details, to the complex picture of the EU space sector. Although, RTGs that are currently used by NASA and ESA, are entirely manufactured by Western producers and there is no material dependence on external economies; RTGs are not a product of a sustainable cycle, but rather an exploitive process. Thus, the implementation of Radium’s technology would satisfy the need for security, ensuring self-sufficient production in the European continent with the desire for sustainable growth. Moreover, space exploration, which is not happening at the expense of living conditions on earth is a narrative that is, again, in line with values believed in the EU, this in turn, makes it easier to accept for the public, the expenses of deep space exploration.

Amazon Forest

The majority of the sensors monitoring the Amazon Forest are powered by lithium and/ or alkaline batteries (Silva, R. A., et al.), which are not that efficiently recyclable as the batteries proposed by Radium. Moreover, most of the Amazon Forest lies within the territory of Brazil and this is particularly good news as Brazil's economy disposes power plants, which can serve as a source of Americium-241 to manufacture the batteries and power the sensors in the Amazonian Forest.

In this case, the technology developed within the EU can be exported to support sustainability efforts, all around the globe; and the EU can combine its legal frameworks and climate narrative with the actual technology that can help execute the ambitious agenda, and effectively help the disadvantaged south.

Deep Oceans

A similar situation is regarding the discovery of deep oceans; instead of sinking the wastes at the ocean’s floors, thanks to European technology it would be possible to discover untouched territories, which again would help expand European influences and be a real-life support to ambitious climate goals. All while employing local economies in the whole process; and ensuring that nuclear wastes are reintegrated into the economy in a manner safe for the environment.

The deep ocean is an extremely remote place, comparable only with the Moon Lands or the deserts of Mars, although the deep ocean is a very interesting place with diverse organisms with unique biological and chemical properties, that can be used in developing new pharmaceuticals. It is also a place of various energy sources from OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion) to hydrothermal vents, where overheated water erupts from the sea floor. All the above mentioned requires, a long and monotone observation to spot and employ it in real-life projects. Long observations in such a hostile environment require extremely durable energy sources. As of today, for deep ocean exploration, the most widely used are lithium batteries, bound by their lifespan, and the fuel batteries that use chemical processes, of which only byproduct is water. In this mix, nuclear batteries might be a good complementary element of the ocean observatory system, ensuring a long lifespan and stability.

Summary

In this essay we focused on the Societal, Political, and Geostrategic dimensions of 3 domains, namely, Space, Amazon Forest, and Deep-Ocean, to showcase, how the development of nuclear batteries of nuclear wastes, can help the green transition in Europe.

For the summary part, we would like to know more about the feasibility of the solution, and what it means to develop nuclear batteries from nuclear waste. The most important is to acknowledge, there are many chemical elements in the wastes, that can be reintroduced into the economy, including americium-241, carbon-14, tritium, and nickel-63, and these can be used for the abovementioned usages, but the span of potential usages includes even medical implants. The process requires, therefore, not only a supportive facility for the nuclear power plants but also, a distribution grid, necessary value chains, and certifications. It is a very complex venture, with great potential to help achieve the goal of a sustainable economy, in the EU but also other parts of the world if implemented correctly. The next steps would be the analysis, of the feasibility, based on the case study.

Author:

Artur Willoński

Bibliography:

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