Why Canadian trash costs $30,000 per gram

by Hyeon Yun
Why Canadian trash costs $30,000 per gram
Credit: The American Chemical Society

How do you turn nuclear waste into a $30,000-per-gram commodity? Tritium, once discarded as a by-product of Canadian nuclear reactors, is now one of the most expensive materials on Earth. This rare isotope of hydrogen powers glow-in-the-dark keychains, exit signs that can stay bright for two decades without power and cutting-edge fusion energy research.

Join our host, George, as he explores how tritium is produced and used, and why its use as a fusion fuel is completely different from its use in exit signs. As the demand for clean, limitless power grows, companies are racing to secure their piece of the tritium pie, making this once-discarded nuclear waste a hot commodity.






Credit: American Chemical Society

Citation:
Video: Why Canadian trash costs $30,000 per gram (2024, September 16)
retrieved 23 September 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-09-video-canadian-trash-gram.html

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