Because of nuclear non-proloferation treaties. You can't run a "recycling" program without also being able to make plutonium for bombs.
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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Just let the government do it then. All nuclear waste should/must be handled and recycled by the state.
It's not like they don't have nuclear bomb or plutonium already.
Nahh duck that. Give 50 billion to some corporation to do the job.
Trust me bro, it works every time to make some dude rich
Add the '/s' for the libertarians.
You can’t run a "recycling" program without also being able to make plutonium for bombs.
But you need far more enrichment for weapons grade plutonium than you do for commercial fuel plutonium. In fact, the more we use plutonium for fuel, the less nuclear waste there will be available to potentially be recycled into weapons grade plutonium in the future. There would also be less potent waste to be stored long term which is why Japan reprocesses.
And other countries are reprocessing, including Russia and China, so I don't see how US holding back is helping non-proliferation anyway.
We do...
The US military sells our "spent" fuel to France who refines it and uses it.
Why do people always want to learn about nuclear energy from YouTube videos made by teenagers with no clue how nuclear power works?
...err the video is 90% a tour of the ORANO La Hague spent fuel recycling facility... by adults.
Oh really?
For its part, the US Energy Department, which owns almost 50 tons of excess Cold War plutonium, contracted with the French government-owned nuclear-fuel cycle company, Areva (now Orano), in 2008 to build a MOX fuel fabrication plant. But the United States switched to a “dilute and dispose” policy for its excess plutonium in 2017 after the estimated cost of the MOX plant grew from $2.7 billion to $17 billion.
That does have most of the same words, so I could see why a search engine thought it was relevant...
But did you read it? Even just the part you quoted?
Like, that's talking about cold war plutonium...
That's not what used military reactor fuel is...
So do you have a source on that?
how much though? I was under the impression that the vast majority of US nuclear fuel is "once through" and the waste goes into long term storage.
Because money.
...and plutonium
Its not taking up much space, we don't really need to reuse it at the moment.