U.S. pressing for deal with other countries to build nuclear fuel repository in Mongolia

Mainichi Shimbun ^ | 08/01/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

U.S. pressing for deal with other countries to build nuclear fuel repository in Mongolia

Momentum has been quickly building behind the scenes for an ambitious and controversial project led by the United States and Japan to build a nuclear fuel repository in Mongolia as Washington is trying to secure a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with other countries concerned by the end of this year.

After the Mainichi reported on the proposal in May, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which wants to be able to buy nuclear fuel from Mongolia, joined the list of countries pursuing the project, and earlier this month the U.S. Department of Energy sounded out other countries concerned about signing a memorandum of understanding on the program by the end of this year. The project itself is to build a mechanism in which advanced countries force the maintenance of nuclear waste, which takes at least 100,000 years to break down to become harmless, onto developing countries.

[bossmechanic]

I know I can’t think of a safer place to store
NUCLEAR WASTE !
Why do I have this vision of sheepherders pouring spent fuel into little plastic baggies and a UPS truck ready for pickup and subsequent delivery to the US?

[Red Badger]

[Charles Martel]

I understand that Japan, with its relatively large population, lacks a remote area in which to store spent nuclear fuel. However, for the U.S. side of this equation, the Gobi Desert seems a long way to go to appease the Yucca Flats NIMBY crowd.

[JoeFromSidney]

Why are we talking about storing it, anyway? Most of it is perfectly good uranium, along with some plutonium. Continue the plant site storage to give the short-lived fission products a chance to decay, then reprocess the uranium and plutonium. This whole storage problem arises solely because we refuse to reprocess the stuff. Let's call it "recycling." That has a good sound, doesn't it?