First new nuclear plant in over 30 years!

[OldTrapper]

more pointless ranting from a obama hater with nothing of value to add ...ever

Hey, your the one that brought up the "little old lady" crossing the street.

However, tell me what BO has done for his own family, ok? And if he can do nothing for his own family how could one expect him to do for others?

Then too, the irrational one asked what to do with the nuclear waste. How about repealing Carters ban on building reprocessing plants like is done in France, and other countries? They don't seem to need a "Yucca Mountain" to get rid of their waste.

 

[dahermit]

What will be done with the waste?

There was a TV presentation about two years ago showing how France had constructed a facility to re-enrich the fuel. The fuel was stored under "water" (looked like water, could have been "heavy water", deuterium oxide), for a couple of years and then ran it through a process that would allow it to be used to power reactors again.
Even if the U.S. did not want to build such a plant, I am sure the French could be persuaded ($$), to recycle our spent fuel for us.
Nevertheless, the real danger is not storage, it is some human factor that could result in an accidental release of radiation. For instance: Marking the welds as having been X-rayed for defects on the forms without actually having done it as on the Alaskan Pipe Line. Or dorking with stuff that is not broken like idling down the Chernobyl plant to see what would happen. Or having safety systems that someone switches off for maintenance and forgets to turn back on. Such are the human element.

 

[Helicitor]

There was a TV presentation about two years ago showing how France had constructed a facility to re-enrich the fuel. The fuel was stored under "water" (looked like water, could have been "heavy water", deuterium oxide), for a couple of years and then ran it through a process that would allow it to be used to power reactors again.
Even if the U.S. did not want to build such a plant, I am sure the French could be persuaded ($$), to recycle our spent fuel for us.
Nevertheless, the real danger is not storage, it is some human factor that could result in an accidental release of radiation. For instance: Marking the welds as having been X-rayed for defects on the forms without actually having done it as on the Alaskan Pipe Line. Or dorking with stuff that is not broken like idling down the Chernobyl plant to see what would happen. Or having safety systems that someone switches off for maintenance and forgets to turn back on. Such are the human element.

Modern reactor designs are considerable more safe than prior versions. As far as waste, this problem can be greatly reduced by reprocessing the fuel and recycling all fissile materials (all isotopes of U, Pu, Np, and a couple others). That would leave only the fission products to be disposed of, and most of these have very short half-lives (compared to fissile material). We'd have to build reactors that could burn the mixed oxide fuel that would result from this "complete" fuel cycle, but it can be done.

 

[dogtowner]

You are right, that is all they need to do. Make the regulations like they are in France and we would have all the energy we need.

get rid of stupidity and prosperity runs rampant

 

[dahermit]

Modern reactor designs are considerable more safe than prior versions.

Designs are not the problem. It is the fools in charge. The human element has been the central factor in many disasters. Nevertheless, I favor all forms of alternative energy including nuclear.