It surprising to see a man in his position make such claims about oil - his entire business depends on it.
Still, I must take my hat off to him. Nuclear power needs renewed research into waste processing and immediate investment into a new generation of nuclear power plants.
The problem with reprocessing spent fuel is that its a lot cheaper for the industry just to pay the Federal government to throw it away rather than reuse if for fuel.
Even though the amount of spent fuel produced by commercial reactors is extremely tiny, permanently storing it is a political problem. IMO, the Federal government needs to reprocess spent fuel and utilize the plutonium and uranium in Federally owned nuclear reactors. Any residual waste should be stored at Federal reactor sites until final deposition a couple of hundred years from now.
The storage of waste is certainly more of a political one than a technological one. The amount of waste produced is so small in comparison with other fuels that it seems odd there should be such an uproar about it.
Granted, the high level waste takes thousands of years to decay to the levels of the original ore, but there are ways and means of dealing with that. The benefits of nuclear power far outweigh this small problem.
It surprising to see a man in his position make such claims about oil - his entire business depends on it.
ReplyDeleteStill, I must take my hat off to him. Nuclear power needs renewed research into waste processing and immediate investment into a new generation of nuclear power plants.
Thanks for sharing this.
The problem with reprocessing spent fuel is that its a lot cheaper for the industry just to pay the Federal government to throw it away rather than reuse if for fuel.
ReplyDeleteEven though the amount of spent fuel produced by commercial reactors is extremely tiny, permanently storing it is a political problem. IMO, the Federal government needs to reprocess spent fuel and utilize the plutonium and uranium in Federally owned nuclear reactors. Any residual waste should be stored at Federal reactor sites until final deposition a couple of hundred years from now.
The storage of waste is certainly more of a political one than a technological one. The amount of waste produced is so small in comparison with other fuels that it seems odd there should be such an uproar about it.
ReplyDeleteGranted, the high level waste takes thousands of years to decay to the levels of the original ore, but there are ways and means of dealing with that. The benefits of nuclear power far outweigh this small problem.