On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 12:32 PM, Robert Munn <cfmuns...@gmail.com> wrote:. > > Right now we keep it on site at each plant. If Obama would repeal Jimmy > Carter's idiotic ban of spent fuel re-processing, we could just re-process > the fuel down to almost nothing, gaining greater efficiencies along the way. > The French do it, why can't we? >
The French have entirely different types of reactors than we do. From what I understand, we don't currently have the setup to reprocess our spent fuel. Reprocessing Plutonium ends up producing material which is uncomfortably weapons-grade and we are trying to discourage further production of such materials. New reactor designs encourage the use of different types of fuel, like Thorium instead of Plutonium. I'm cautiously optimistic about the new so-called pebble-bed reactor designs. I think they have a place at the table when discussing energy plans, no doubt. Unfortunately, the decisions involved in sighting a new reactor, building it and upgrading the transmission infrastructure to support the electricity it produces makes it a much longer time-frame for implementation than I'd like. I think you are focusing too much on centralized, large scale power production. That's been the way of the past but I don't think it is the way of the future. Decentralized power production through wind, solar, biomass, wave energy and, yes, potentially nuclear power presents far great benefits for our society I think. Power needs can be more closely tailored to locales, a more flexible mix of technologies can be in play and by decentralizing, we reduce the risk of natural disasters and terrorist attacks taking out large swaths of our interconnected power grid (see Edison's failures in the NE). It will cut out some big players and hence profits but I think the approach will benefit the general public and business community while increasing reliability by removing centralized failure points. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:283343 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
