---
title: "Nobel Prize Winner: Lasers Could Permanently Destroy Nuclear Waste"
description: "## Nuclear Waste"
date: "2019-04-02"
modified: "2019-04-02"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nobel-prize-lasers-destroy-nuclear-waste"
categories:
  - "Energy"
  - "Nuclear Fusion"
  - "Renewable Energy"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "lasers"
  - "nuclear power"
  - "nuclear waste"
  - "the digest"
---

# Nobel Prize Winner: Lasers Could Permanently Destroy Nuclear Waste

![A Nobel Prize winning scientist says that high-intensity lasers could one day render nuclear waste harmless in just a few minutes.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/nobel-prize-lasers-destroy-nuclear-waste.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Nuclear Waste

Nuclear power can provide inexpensive electricity with little in the way of emissions, but there's a catch: it produces horrifying radioactive waste that can remain deadly for thousands of years.

Enter Gerard Mourou, the Nobel Prize-winning subject of a fascinating new [*Bloomberg* profile](<https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-nuclear-waste-storage-france/>). He says that high-intensity lasers could one day render nuclear waste harmless in just a few minutes — a concept which, if realized, could make nuclear power a [vastly more appealing energy option](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nuclear-energy-can-save-earth>).

## Laser Future

Mourou is the first to admit that his work, which would use powerful lasers to break down radioactive waste into less harmful material at the atomic level, could be decades off.

"Nuclear energy is maybe the best candidate for the future, but we are still left with a lot of dangerous junk," he said [during his Nobel Lecture](<https://youtu.be/W5Fz_BsWCjU>) in December. "The idea is to transmute this nuclear waste into new forms of atoms which don’t have the problem of radioactivity."

**READ MORE:** [Zapping Nuclear Waste in Minutes Is Nobel Winner’s Holy Grail Quest](<https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-nuclear-waste-storage-france/>) \[*Bloomberg*\]

**More on nuclear energy:** *[Experts: The Only Way to Save the Planet Is Nuclear Energy](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nuclear-energy-can-save-earth>)*

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)