REPROCESSING AND NUCLEAR WASTE

The Composition of Spent Fuel Rods

When questions about safety and cost are put to rest, the question always remains what are you goin to do with the waste. Yet the whle question is premised wrong. More than 97% of the material in spent fuel rod can be successfully recycled. After sitting in a reactor for five years, only 3% of a fuel rod's potential energy has been tapped. It is important to remember the incredible density of nuclear energy. Recycling procedures generally reduce the volume of material by 70% and that includes the disposal container.

96% of a fuel rod is uranium-238, the non-fissionable isotope. Basically it is there for packing material. It serves no purpose except to hold the fissionable isotope, U-235. The natural uranium is only mildly radioactive and poses no danger. It can be handled safely with gloves. For regulatory purposes, however it has been classified as low level waste. This means it can be safely disposed by burning it in the ground.

Enriched uranium is 4 percent U-235, as opposed to 0.7 percent in the natural ore. After five years in a reactor, U-235 is back down to approximately 1%. This 1% can be recycled. Meanwhile about 1% of the U-238 has been transmuted into plutonium, which is also fissionable. But plutonium can be blended with U-235 to form MOX fuel, which can be used as fuel in most reactors. This means both the uranium and plutonium waste can be recycled for energy.

The remaining 3% is fission products and actinides that are produces in the reactor. These are highly radioactive and must be handled remotely. But many are also valuable medical and industrial isotopes. Nuclear medicine is an $8 billion industry. It is a prime technology in treating cancer. The problem in dealing with spent fuel rods of course is their intense radioactivity. However six feet of water or four feet of lead can block all radiation. There has bee no incident anywhere in the world where a person has been injured or killed by exposure to spent fuel.

Nuclear waste is not a flaw in nuclear technology. The real problem is reprocessing is not being done with used nuclear fuel.

Nuclear proliferation

Reprocessing is not done was due to the driven concern that isolating plutonium would lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. However reprocessing and proliferation were 2 sides of the same coin. At the same time history has shown that if nuclear weapons are going to proliferate, stealing plutonium from reprocessing operations will not be the likely route. Nuclear technology is no longer a secret and most countries have their own scientists.