From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,60e2922351e0e780 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-11-18 10:20:58 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cyclone.bc.net!news.uunet.ca!nf3.bellglobal.com!nf1.bellglobal.com!nf2.bellglobal.com!news20.bellglobal.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Warren W. Gay VE3WWG" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: OT: Nuclear Waste (Was Re-Marketing Ada) References: <3FB22125.1040807@noplace.com> <3FB3751D.5090809@noplace.com> <49cbf610.0311171533.2324e885@posting.google.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <1ctub.9145$iT4.970304@news20.bellglobal.com> Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:06:26 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.96.223.163 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sympatico.ca X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 1069178749 198.96.223.163 (Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:05:49 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:05:49 EST Organization: Bell Sympatico Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:2638 Date: 2003-11-18T13:06:26-05:00 List-Id: Ludovic Brenta wrote: > dmytrylavrov@fsmail.net (Dmytry Lavrov) writes: > > > > According to COGEMA, the French agency for nuclear fuel and waste, a > nuclear plant uses fuel that consists, for 100 kg of fuel, of: ... > - it is possible to reuse the plutonium, mixed with uranium, in some > existing power plants to produce energy. Thus, we do not produce > ever more plutonium but "burn" it as we go. At the very least, this > reduces the net amount of plutonium produced. For example, France > burns plutonium in 900 MW reactors, but not in 1300 MW reactors. > > - it is possible to store it and wait for 26 thousand years until half > the plutonium has turned into other (possibly radioactive) elements. > > - it is possible to use it in nuclear weapons. This is akin to > storage, until (God forbid) such time as the weapons are used. A lot of possibilities, but no one (exaggeration) is doing anything about it. Why? Economics. Profit from the fuel now, and leave it to someone else to clean it up. That's the way things always have worked. Corruption is not left only to the 3rd world. The only difference is that in the developed world, they try to hide it. > My opinion is this: we should not trust our children for 26 thousand > years (by which time only half the problem will be solved anyway). We > cannot even trust ourselves for a couple of decades without going to > war or doing something stupid. We must treat this plutonium and turn > it into something harmless. It is not an urgent problem for now, but > will become one around 2040 when most of the existing reactors reach > their end of life (the existing reactors with their infrastructure are > absolutely required for treatment of nuclear waste; nobody would > accept building a treatment plant where nothing "nuclear" exists yet). Good point. -- Warren W. Gay VE3WWG http://home.cogeco.ca/~ve3wwg