The Big Lie About Nuclear Waste
Cleo Abram
Seems that recycling nuclear fuel is possible, but expensive. It doesn't help that Jimmy Carter, the jerk, put a stop to it back when he was president. That kind of forced the nuclear power business to invest heavily in using plutonium, which means we will have to exert ourselves (spend money) to go back to the older technology that enables recycling of nuclear fuel.
First of all the term Nuclear Waste is a blanket term that's confusing to lay people.
ReplyDeleteThere is spent fuel that she is talking about recycling which is nasty dangerous stuff.
But most nuclear waste is not so bad. I've worked in half a dozen nuke plants watching hundreds of barrels loaded onto tractor trailers labeled Nuclear Waste. Those barrels were filled with white paper suits, rubber gloves and miles of tape use to attach the suit to gloves and cover zippers. Hats, masks, and contaminated tools. The stuff is contaminated and must be disposed of but a lot different than spent fuel. One problem was GE built cheaper power plants that ran the radioactive steam through the turbine to save the cost of a heat exchanger. That meant the turbine hall was hot so and maintenance on the turbines was more complicated, producing tons of "nuclear waste".
Back in the '50s when they were doing tests in the desert they said those spots would be nogo zones for 10,000 years. I always wondered why they didn't bury spent fuel there.
One minor point, turbines don't make electricity, they spin the generators that do.
The biggest problem with Nuclear power is public perception because on misinformation.
xoxoxoBruce