With the fight against climate change, nuclear power becomes more and more important, but carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is not the only threat to human survival in the future. The waste generated by nuclear power is hazardous for millions of years, and no one can deal with it properly. French Nobel laureate g é rard mourou is working on an interesting solution. According to Mulu, such a program could turn nuclear waste into a safer form.           

Mulu and Donna Strickland won the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics. They won a prize for inventing a process called CPA at the laser energy laboratory at the University of Rochester. CPA can produce very short laser pulses, but it has super high intensity. Initial research focused on applications such as laser processing and eye surgery, and scientists used it to observe atomic processes that occur at almost incredible speeds. 'if we can speed it up further, the research can be applied to the disposal of nuclear waste,' Mr. mulu said.           

At present, nuclear waste is piled up in safety facilities around the world. No matter where we store it, it will be very dangerous for hundreds of years to come. The most dangerous wastes, uranium 235 and P 239, have a radioactive half-life of about 24000 years. Therefore, these materials are very dangerous to human beings for millions of years. According to mulu, it is possible for CPA to convert nuclear waste into very safe substances.           

Currently, CPA can produce laser pulses as short as 1 a second, or billionth of a tenth of a second. To turn nuclear waste into something safe, mulu said, you need to increase the pulse rate by about 10000 times. This may sound high, but the CPA itself is an order of magnitude higher than the previous lasers.           

Using ultrafast laser pulses to bombard nuclear waste, protons are shot out of the nucleus. That would turn dangerous substances such as uranium 235 into relatively harmless substances such as lead. Other experts also pointed out that this research is of great significance in theory. However, it is still beyond our ability to develop appropriate laser technology, separate radioactive nuclei and carry out irradiation logistics. (From CNNPN)