Re[2]: What Should We Do With Plutonium Once Nuclear Weapons

[Vincent.King@doegjpo.com (Vincent King)]

     What were you thinking, Ruth?  Of course we can't do something like 
     this, for three primary reasons:
     
     (1) It would remove the plutonium's availability for proliferation, 
     since the Pu is irretrievably destroyed when you fission it to 
     obtain energy (of course, opponents to MOX fuel cite 
     'proliferation' as one of their main concerns, which completely 
     defies logic as far as I can tell);
     
     (2) It would greatly shorten the length of time needed to store the 
     radioactive by-products (since fission product half-lives are 
     generally much shorter than the half-life of plutonium); this would 
     have the negative effect of addressing one of the critics' primary 
     complaints; and 
     
     (3) We would obtain a great deal of useful energy without 
     additional mining of raw materials or creation of greenhouse gases. 
     This might lead to the possibility that 'plutonium' and 'benefit' 
     could legitimately be used in the same sentence, which is, of 
     course, unthinkable.
     
     Of course, a well-designed breeder program could also take all 
     those U-238 atoms we also throw away and turn a large number of 
     THEM into fuel as well, multiplying our nuclear energy resources 
     many times over.  
     
     I'll stop now...I can only deliver so much bad news in my one 
     e-mail posting for the day.
     
     Vincent King
     vincent.king@doegjpo.com  
     
     
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: What Should We Do With Plutonium Once Nuclear Weapons Ar
Author:  "ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com> at Internet
Date:    8/10/00 1:57 PM


why are we so anxious to dispose of the plutonium that was so expensive to
make in the first place?  why can't we do some plutonium chemistry with it?
Why can't we make MOX fuel?

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com
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