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To: chimera
there's a few things i still don't understand about reprossesing. perhaps you could clear it up. do other countries use it? perhaps ones without enviro lobbies, like the commies?
75 posted on 04/09/2002 10:38:05 PM PDT by gfactor
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To: gfactor
there's a few things i still don't understand about reprossesing. perhaps you could clear it up. do other countries use it? perhaps ones without enviro lobbies, like the commies?

There are foreign countries that have active reprocessing programs. The French nuclear program is one. I think BNFL also has reprocessing facilities somwhere in the UK, maybe Sellafield, but I'm not sure. I don't know about the FSU, but I think they also have (or had) such capabilities. I know the Soviets built some breeder plants, some of which are still operating nicely.

Political pressure brought by special interest groups played a big part in the decision by former political leaders of this country to abandon reprocessing and go with this ill-advised (from a resource utilization viewpoint) plan to dump used fuel. There was absolutely no technical basis for that decision. The science of reprocessing is fully understood. DOE, in fact, for years used to reprocess highly-enriched spent fuel at the Savannah River facility as part of the military reuse program. What we did have was a President (Carter) who had a daughter (Amy) who had an irrational fear of nuclear proliferation, and a concurrent phobia about anything having to do with plutonium. It is my opinion that Carter based his policymaking, in large part, on the fear he saw in his child. While it is generally good parenting to be aware of those things that frighten your children and to help them work through and deal with these fears, it is, in general, a bad basis upon which to formulate public policies, especially those that have impacts for generations to come on the energy security of this nation.

77 posted on 04/10/2002 6:21:07 AM PDT by chimera
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