James Lovelock: Why are we so afraid of nuclear power?

BartenderElite said:
I'd love it if it weren't so generationally irresponsible. So many things could go wrong over the span of time - we don't really have waste containment or contingency plans for plants that go beyond a generation.

That's just factual. Read what happens if a plant goes unmanned for any stretch of time.
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I've already told you that in France they reprocess so-called nuclear waste and it is then reused. This reduces the actual waste considerably. They were going to do that in the US but ignorant peasants like you stopped that happening.

Orano la Hague, on the cutting edge of used fuel recycling

Ever since its beginnings in the 1950s and 1960s, the nuclear industry has had to ponder the question of used fuel management. With the creation of the la Hague treatment plant in 1966, the French nuclear industry acquired a sustainable solution for meeting this need. The la Hague site has evolved over the years and is now – as it has always been – the global benchmark in the field of treatment, a vital step in recycling.

The treatment of used nuclear fuel is a long production cycle which lasts about 10 years. It begins when the used fuel is removed from the nuclear reactors where it produced power. The fuel is then packaged in “casks”, which are steel containers weighing 110 metric tons (for 10 metric tons of materials), so that it can be safely shipped. Then it is ready to be shipped to the Orano la Hague site, some 25 kilometers from Cherbourg in the MancheDepartment, where it will be treated. And so begins a great adventure…

Upon arrival at the la Hague site, the fuel is removed from the cask. This intricate operation is performed completely remotely using specialized robots and remote manipulators.

The fuel is cooled by taking a bath in a pool – for an average of five years! During that time, beneath nine meters of water in the storage pool, the fuel temperature drops as its radioactivity decreases through a natural process.

After this first bath, the fuel is cut up into small pieces for its second bath in a nitric acid solution to dissolve its nuclear material. The recyclable material is separated from the non-recyclable material and waste in a chemical facility.

At the end of these operations, 96% of the material can be recycled. Of this, 95% is uranium and 1% is plutonium.

The remaining 4% consist of fission products, also called final waste.

The uranium and plutonium are separated in turn for treatment in a series of complex chemical operations. The uranium will become uranyl nitrate and the plutonium will be converted into plutonium oxide. The latter will be used to produce fresh fuel called MOX – mixed oxides of uranium and plutonium – to reduce our natural uranium requirements by 25%. Meanwhile, the uranium is held as a strategic inventory pending re-enrichment.

What happens to the final waste?
This waste cannot be reduced further; it is calcined and mixed with glass, then melted and poured into stainless steel canisters, offering safe and stable immobilization for several tens of thousands of years.

If the waste comes from French reactors, it is stored at the Orano la Hague site in buildings constructed for that purpose pending transfer to the final disposal facility to be built under the Cigéo Project.

If it comes from abroad, it is returned to the country of origin, as required by French law.

https://www.orano.group/country/china/en/our-stories/orano-la-hague
 
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Porkeye
Porkeye.jpg
I am thread banned by you because I am too close to the truth, and you cant handle the truth.
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Banned. Permanently.


Haw, haw.....................haw.
 
moon said:
Can anybody wonder why the nuclear lobby is reviled.
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I can tell you why the Left is reviled. They're anti-STEM, anti-history, anti-reality, emotional, needy, whiny, and basically the sort of snotty teenage girl that just grinds everybody's gears...
 
T. A. Gardner said:
I can tell you why the Left is reviled. They're anti-STEM, anti-history, anti-reality, emotional, needy, whiny, and basically the sort of snotty teenage girl that just grinds everybody's gears...
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Who said that the reviled nuclear lobby was composed entirely of Rightists ?

You call yourself a scientist ?


Haw, haw...................haw.
 
T. A. Gardner said:
Strawmen in the form of gaslighting.
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You have to be rather dim to believe that all nuclear nuts- such as your sad self- are on the political Right. Whatever powers your mental light-bulb is in need of recharging.,


Haw, haw.......................haw.

Silly fucker.
 
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