Image Credit: SciTechie
(With some -- ahem -- videos on "how to build a nuclear reactor": think MacGyver)
"In a study to be released on Tuesday, engineers and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology therefore suggest that “the entire spent-fuel management system — on-site storage, consolidated long-term storage, geological disposal — is likely to be re-evaluated in a new light because of the Fukushima storage-pool experience.”
"The accident in Japan has already generated calls for sending the fuel to factories where it would be mechanically chopped up and chemically dissolved to recover the plutonium that is made in routine reactor operations, as it frequently is in Europe and Japan. The plutonium could then be used as a substitute for uranium fuel at nuclear plants."
Er..."green" nuclear power? SOMEONE will try to use it.
Our economy is based on fossil fuels, gas for trucks to ship goods, plastic Tupperware, jet fuel and airfare. With gas in New York at $4/gallon (and the real possibility of approaching $5), it affects the cost of heating homes, groceries in the store and the cost of living via your paycheck.
Our geopolitics in the Near East (dislike the term "Middle East") is largely the result of our gluttonous usage of dead dinosaurs.
Until we master the "holy grail" of nuclear power -- fusion -- rethinking it and how to responsibly deal with the waste could determine jobs, an economy and a prosperous future for the country that leads the way.
NYTimes: Report Urges Storing Spent Nuclear Fuel, Not Reprocessing It
MIT Report (PDF): The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle
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