Evaluation of Waste Management Strategies: Solar Panel Waste vs Nuclear Waste Handling in Molten Salt Reactors

Abstract

[ES] Estudio y comparación sobre la situacion actual en la gestión de residuos generados por la energia solar fotovoltaica asi como los generados por los reactores nucleares de sal fundida.

[EN] The energy demand has been continuously growing due to the high population growth rate over the last decades. Producing more energy brings great challenges such as handling more waste products. Waste management strategies are required not only to reduce the amount of waste generated from all energy sources, but also to keep hazardous materials safely away from the environment and the public. The purpose of this thesis was the evaluation of the strategies to manage the final waste produced by solar energy, regarding photovoltaic panels, and nuclear energy, regarding the Dual Fluid Reactor. First, the photovoltaic power systems and their waste management processes have been described in order to present an overview of current techniques. Then the DFR power systems and their waste management strategies have been explained. Finally, with the available data from the amounts of residues produced by PV modules, and the expected amount to be generated by DFR, a comparison has been established. The conclusion obtained after carrying out this work is that, if the reactor fulfils the simulation code predictions, the waste management processes of the DFR generate less waste than those produced by photovoltaic solar energy.