Nuclear Fuel Recycling: More Trouble Than It's Worth

JICWyllie

5-11-2008 2:09 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/7e6e082d-3010-43aa-bda2-3eea4f2c6e60/AE3F5B1E-8881-40B8-A7A7-EC3D8A958C9C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rethinking-nuclear-fuel-recycling" href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rethinking-nuclear-fuel-recycling" style="font-size: 11px;">www.sciam.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rethinking-nuclear-fuel-recycling"><H3>Key Concepts</H3>
						<UL>
    <li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">Spent nuclear fuel contains plutonium, which can be extracted and used in new fuel.</LI>
    <li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">To reduce the amount of long-lived radioactive waste, the U.S. Department of Energy has proposed reprocessing spent fuel in this way and then “burning” the plutonium in special reactors.</LI>
    <li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">But reprocessing is very expensive. Also, spent fuel emits lethal radiation, whereas separated plutonium can be handled easily. So reprocessing invites the possibility that terrorists might steal plutonium and construct an atom bomb.</LI>
    <li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;">The author argues against reprocessing and for storing the waste in casks until an underground repository is ready.</LI></UL></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rethinking-nuclear-fuel-recycling"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.sciam.com/img/C30AA977-42A2-4D24-84C7-4356FBF49C68" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rethinking-nuclear-fuel-recycling"><P class="caption" id="articleImgCap"><STRONG></STRONG> LA HAGUE, on France's Normandy coast, hosts a large complex that reprocesses spent fuel from nuclear power plants, extracting its plutonium for fabrication into new fuel. The U.S. Depart�ment of Energy has recently proposed building a similar facility.<BR /><SPAN>Martin Bond: Photo Researchers, Inc.</SPAN></P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/AE3F5B1E-8881-40B8-A7A7-EC3D8A958C9C/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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