[ RadSafe ] FW: Nuclear Fuel Recycling

[garyi at trinityphysics.com]

Further, since the UN and US response to a nuclear Iran and N. Korea is a firmly implanted 
head in the sand strategy, I wonder how non proliferation talks are any use at all.  Oh yeah, 
we kept those vicious Eskimos from getting nuks.  And the evil Swiss, bent on world 
domination, I don't think they have nukes either.  Boy will I sleep soundly tonight.

Our fearless messiah is really just grass kissing for the benefit of his far left constituency.

-Gary Isenhower
 

On 9 Jul 2009 at 15:36, Dustin G Miller wrote:

If nuclear proliferation was such a huge deal with reprocessing, then
why isn't France on the front page headlines for their "reckless
endangerment of the world by nuclear proliferation" because of their
successes with spent fuel reporcessing.


Dustin Miller


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Mercado, Don Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 3:12 PM To:
'radsafe' Subject: [ RadSafe ] FW: Nuclear Fuel Recycling


So much for transparency regardless of what political camp one is in.
Apparently 'reprocessing' is not considered as one of the 3 R's
(recycle, reduce, reuse)



Editorial

Nature 460, 152 (9 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/460152b; Published online
8 July 2009

Adieu to nuclear recycling
Top of
page<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v460/n7252/full/460152b.html
#top#t op> Abstract

President Barack Obama should be applauded for his decision to scrap
commercial reprocessing.

This week, US President Barack Obama has been grabbing headlines with
his efforts to revitalize the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty - a
US/Russian agreement to reduce the nuclear arsenals of both nations.

Such efforts will be applauded worldwide, but another decision by the
Obama administration deserves equal acclaim. On 29 June, the president
quietly cancelled a lengthy environmental review that was the first
step in allowing the resumption of commercial nuclear reprocessing in
the United States. Nuclear reprocessing chemically separates uranium
and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel so that it can be reused in
specialized reactors. The same technique can be used to purify
material for nuclear weapons, and it is partly for that reason that
the United States decided to halt reprocessing in the 1970s.

Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, sought to reverse that decision.
He thought that reprocessing could be part of a broader approach that
would see used fuel from non-nuclear-weapons states brought to the
United States for reprocessing. As part of the Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership programme, Bush advocated the construction of a
demonstration commercial reprocessing plant, and an environmental
review was already under way when Obama came into office.

Such a plant, had the plans been allowed to continue, would have been
both costly and counterproductive. Proliferation worries aside,
reprocessing is complex, expensive and creates a liquefied stream of
highly radioactive waste that is difficult to dispose of. The
technology is likely to be needed within the next two decades, so
Obama is right in his decision to allow research into ways to improve
reprocessing, while constraining the programme to one of basic
science.

The decision to halt commercial nuclear recycling sends a clear
message that the United States is committed to nuclear
non-proliferation. Such decisions, together with diplomacy such as
that taking place in Russia, are deliberate and encouraging first
steps towards building an international consensus on reducing the
threat from nuclear weapons.

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