AW: [ RadSafe ] Fast neutron reactors

[Steven Dapra]

Dec. 4

         Chris Hofmeyr probably refers to the Carter administration because 
Carter is the president who shut down re-processing.  No, not all "criminal 
negligence" occurs in the US of A.  My guess is that criminal negligence is 
ubiquitous.

Steven Dapra


At 05:32 PM 12/4/08 +1100, Brent Rogers wrote:
>I'm a little bit confused as to why the marker would be "since the Carter
>presidency".  Isn't there a "rest of the world" that does research, or is
>all criminal negligence owned by the USA?  Or perhaps you're implying the
>whole world has been criminally negligent on this issue since 1980 but were
>just fuzzy on the dates?
>
>Brent Rogers
>Sydney Australia
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf
>Of chris.hofmeyr at webmail.co.za
>Sent: Thursday, 4 December 2008 3:37 AM
>To: Rainer.Facius at dlr.de
>Cc: radsafe at radlab.nl
>Subject: Re: AW: [ RadSafe ] Fast neutron reactors
>
>
>Rainer and others,
>I agree that research on fast neutron reactors and also the Th cycle have
>been criminally neglected since the Carter presidency.  Huge sums have
>been spent on fusion research, although people in the field know full well
>that early generations of such a concept, if they are at all realised,
>will at best be copious (fast) neutron sources to be used for breeding -
>you guessed it - Pu from e.g. DU, to be used in more conventional fission
>reactors.  So much for the promise of 'clean' ans 'safe' fusion energy.
>The availability of uranium at a reasonable cost is rather limited, so the
>future of fission energy in the medium to longer term is dependent on
>breeder technology to unlock the presently unused vast potential in
>nuclear fuel.  We really need resources for the best brains to be able to
>focus on an economic breeder programme with sufficient security
>(preferably inherent) to prevent pilfering of fissile material that can be
>used for nefarious purposes.  This is a tall order, but surely much more
>achievable than an economic fusion reactor.
>
>Chris Hofmeyr
>
>chofmeyr at webmail.co.za

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