The Department of Energy today announced a blue-ribbon commission to recommend a course for America's Nuclear Future. With direct guidance from the White House, the commission is to, "conduct a comprehensive review of policies for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including all alternatives for the storage, processing, and disposal of civilian and defense used nuclear fuel and nuclear
waste." The back end is typically described as interim storage, reprocessing, and waste disposal.
Secretary Chu said the Commission would be co-chaired by former Congressman Lee Hamilton and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. Since the Yucaa Mountain Repository was scuttled by the American government early last year, there has been no strategy for the storage or reprocessing of nuclear waste. Several decades ago, America eschewed reprocessing for fear of nuclear proliferation - reprocessing produced near-weapons-quality material. Yet today, other nations are reprocessing the nuclear waste, and frankly, it isn't a real good idea to just bury it.
Is Nuclear Power the Future explains on Thursday night, President Obama requested "a new generation of safe, clean, nuclear generating plants." The USA Today article tells that nuclear plants present an ideological dilemma for environmentalists. They are opposed to fossil-fueled plants, but rightly wary of nuclear waste. But, the graph below from the EIA website shows the expected trend is not good for U.S. energy independence. (Nor greenhouse emissions.)
The Domestic Uranium Production Report Quarterly tells that in 3rd quarter 2009, the U.S. produced 957,000 pounds of U3O8. The concentrate was produced by four operating sites, three less than a year earlier. That news, just like the nuclear capacity curve, is why the U.S. (and most of the western developed nations) needs a new nuclear course.
Mmm. Perhaps I should not give nuclear critics any more material, but did you see, Alligator found at Kansas nuclear plant? Despite very seasonal weather in the mid-section of the country, the water exchange from the nuclear plant keeps the water warm year-round. Somehow the four-foot-long tropical alligator had been able to survive for some time on the plentiful fish near the plant, until a fisherman found it dead from an unknown cause.
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