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Re: News Advisory: Still Crazy After Oil These Years!



Michael Delceg <mdelceg@nelson.planet.org.nz> wrote:
>Although I said I wouldn't respond, my use of the words "nuclear 
>proliferation" have been misconstrued. I consider nuclear power 
>plants which produce exceptionally long lived waste as engaging in 
>nuclear proliferation, whether or not some of this waste is diverted 
>to weapons production, as is perhaps the more common interpretation. 
>I do not wish to continue arguing with someone who can conclude that 
>electrolysis fascilitates hydrogen bomb production.
>Mike

Mike, nuclear power plants are fueled with material whose natural 
half life is between a few hundred million years and 4 billion years.
(Those are the half lives of various isotopes of uranium.)

The vast majority of the fission products produced in a nuclear fission
reactor have half lives of less than 1 year.  Only a few have 
half lives as long as 30 years.

The product that many people who have little understanding of nuclear
physics - such as yourself - seem to be most concerned about is
plutonium, specifically plutonium 239. This material has a half life
of about 24,000 years (quite a long time, but far less than several
hundred million years.)

This isotope is produced in small quantities as a by-product of
a fission reactor, but it is not a fission product.  Instead, it is
a valuable fuel material, whose energy density is approximately
2 million times as high as oil.  It can be readily recovered from
"spent" nuclear fuel and used to fuel more reactors.

Currently, this recycling process is done on a commercial scale in both
France and Great Britain.  Japan has future plans to build recycling
plants.  The US made a political decision in the late 1970s to 
throw old nuclear fuel away, rather than to ensure that this valuable
material is fully used.

Since a nuclear fission reactor produces reliable power without 
the production of a single molecule of polluting gases like CO2,
CO, NOx, or SOx, it seems to me that nuclear proliferation should
be a goal, not something to be feared.

Rod Adams
Editor, Atomic Energy Insights
http://www.ans.neep.wisc.edu/~ans/point_source/AEI/AEI_home.html





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