I mean no harm.
You should look at mitochondria:
Oops… it’s turbines all the way down.
The scientists didn’t joke about that tokamaks will be a great neutron factory/highest neutron flux available. Yes, neutron activation of the reactor walls/components is a problem that we need to solve. However, transmutation of lithium to tritium is required for the reactor to work in the long term, so having a high neutron flux source is a plus in this regard. (and a negative in all aspects of structural integrity…)
The volume amount of activated material that would come out from tokamaks is a fraction compared to the literal tens of tons half-burnt uranium that takes way too long to decay to safe level. The more angrier the radioactivity, the less time it takes to decay away.
Be in one fraction at once. H2O consist of differerent quantum-mechanical portions: para-water and ortho-water.
And it only gets weirder.
No. Don’t google para-hydrogen. You will break your brain.
Fresh PWR fuel is ~4% U-235 and the rest is non-fissile uranium/cladding. ~95% of the potential energy still locked in the “waste” after spending ~2 years in the reactor. Breeder reactors would mean converting greater fraction of this mass into usable energy.
Running PWR core has be at +150 Bar to have +300*C outlet temp - so if something goes wrong it goes wrong like Fukushima. The fuel can stay in the core only until economics say running the plant at less than 100% design power isn’t profitable. Every 18/24 months the plant is needs to shutdown for maintance few a weeks to months. I don’t like PWRs.
“regular, i.e. non-breeder” MSRs that would just use uranium would be a massive improvement - both in safety and efficiency. Heat a massive silo of (secondary coolant) salt to +500*C with MSR, do the reactor repairs while this reserve runs the turbines, resume MSR. The issue is - politics, fear, and too little research in handling molten salts.