To: backhoe
Yes, and there was another one as well. This was really sweetest reprocessing system and was the one they studied at Idaho involving the Integral Fast Reactor. Another Rat, Clinton, killed that one, just as they were starting the run of the EBR-II to demonstrate a completely closed, on-site fuel cycle. The IFR has the bonus of being an inherently safe reactor design as well. And with the pyroprocessing technology that INEL developed, you had a true, vertically-integrated system. It was, literally, like this: fresh fuel came in one end of the plant site, electricity and preprocssed materials came out the other end, and from the side, a very, very small volume of vitrified waste that had to be held for decay (relatively short, on the order of tens of years half-lives). But, Clinton killed the IFR because he knew that if it succeeded, it might spark a true innovative renaissance in the nuclear business. And, well, the wackos, and Hillbillary, just couldn't stand the thought of that.
61 posted on
04/09/2002 2:40:24 PM PDT by
chimera
To: chimera
the Integral Fast Reactor. Another Rat, Clinton, killed that oneYes, I recall that. The "legacy" that just keeps on giving...
63 posted on
04/09/2002 3:59:45 PM PDT by
backhoe
To: chimera
This was really sweetest reprocessing system and was the one they studied at Idaho involving the Integral Fast Reactor. Another Rat, Clinton, killed that one, just as they were starting the run of the EBR-II to demonstrate a completely closed, on-site fuel cycle. The IFR has the bonus of being an inherently safe reactor design as well. And with the pyroprocessing technology that INEL developed, you had a true, vertically-integrated system. It was, literally, like this: fresh fuel came in one end of the plant site, electricity and preprocssed materials came out the other end, and from the side, a very, very small volume of vitrified waste that had to be held for decay (relatively short, on the order of tens of years half-lives). But, Clinton killed the IFR because he knew that if it succeeded, it might spark a true innovative renaissance in the nuclear business. And, well, the wackos, and Hillbillary, just couldn't stand the thought of that. </> I toured the IFR shortly before the Clintonistas killed it. At that time, the people running the program knew that Al Gore and Hazel O'Leary ("the dumbest woman alive" according to one engineer who knew her) were out to stop them. IFR was an impressive system. There were even plans for using the IFR to burn up surplus Soviet weapons-grade plutonium -- but even that was not enough to prevent Gore from killing the program.
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