Reid Celebrates Obama's Yucca Mountain Decision

Spent Nuclear Fuel is too valuable to be called Nuclear Waste

Spent Nuclear Fuel from US Light Water Reactors still has enormous energy value. Only 3% of the Uranium in typical fuel rods is actually burned the remainder of the fuel ~ 96% is disposed of as "waste" but is in fact perfectly usable fuel in alternate technology reactors and is a tremendously valuable resource. We should use SNF that has accumulated from US LWRs to provide start up fuel for new less waste generating Thorium Reactors. Thorium Molten Salt reactors (TMSR) can be started on spent nuclear fuel and then converted over in the course of three decades to run pure Thorium nuclear fuel that produces only 1 part in 100 the amount of waste and 1 part in 1000 the long term radio toxicity of waste. Thorium Molten Salt Reactors have dramatically higher fuel efficiency (>98%) and produce, almost exclusively, easier to handle fission products as waste that decays to the benign level of the natural background in ~350 years. Thorium is more abundant (by about 300%) than natural Uranium and 55000% more abundant than Uranium 235 which is the principle fissile fuel component in current fuel rods that is actually burned by current LWRs.

Burning spent nuclear fuel in Thorium Molten Salt Reactors is enormously more cost effective than remanufacturing spent fuel in conventional solid nuclear fuel rods. Dissolving spent nuclear fuel from LWRs in the molten fuel salt of TMSR reactors one time and then completely burning the fuel through fission until the fuel is fully consumed is much simpler, safer, and more cost effective than the repeated reprocessing and remanufacture of solid fuel rods. Each time you reprocess spent nuclear fuel from solid fuel rods there is a small loss of waste associated with this particular reprocessing step. If you perform the reprocessing and fuel rod remanufacturing step ~30 times to fully consume all the available fuel you inevitably end up with a larger final total loss of waste after you add up the waste loss associated with each reprocessing step. With Molten Salt Reactors it is possible to dissolve the SNF into the fuel salt one time and then keep the SNF in solution while continuously processing out by chemical extraction neutron poisons and fission products as they accumulate in the Molten Salt Reactor until all of the SNF/fuel is burned.

We should use Spent Nuclear Fuel to produce abundant less waste generating nuclear energy to become truly energy self sufficient and launch a nuclear renaissance based on improved Thorium Technology.

Thorium Molten Salt Reactors are not "crank" science. Dr. Edward Teller, the founding director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, wrote his final paper a month before his death on the subject of the advantages of Thorium Molten Salt Reactors.

http://www.geocities.com/rmoir2003/moir_teller.pdf

Respectfully, Robert Steinhaus Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Retired)

Why should you get the benefit...

...while we Nevadans get the dump? If you want nuclear power that badly, you should accept the waste that goes along with it, instead of dumping it elsewhere. Aside from the storage problems with Yucca Mountain (quite a few legitimate safety issues got swept under the rug), a lot of cities across America would have high-level nuclear waste shipped through them -- a perfect terrorist target if there ever was one.

As for Senator McCain, how about setting up the nuclear dump site in Arizona? After all, Arizona doesn't have the earthquake fault lines that run through the Yucca Mountain site, and it would mean jobs for Arizona (smile!) But of course the whole idea would go over like a lead balloon in Arizona like anywhere else; it's easier to make it into someone else's problem.

Critics who say that solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels are not ready for prime time, have been listening too long to the oil, coal, and nuclear lobbies, which clearly are entrenched interests that stand to lose out. Their economic loss is more than compensated by the green jobs, the enterpreneurial opportunities, the end of environmental destruction of our country, and the money that is kept here rather than sent to the Middle East.

Senator Reid wants to get Nevada a share of this new energy economy, to reduce our dependence on tourism and mining -- a proposal that makes a lot of sense to Nevadans -- and he has also helped stop polluting coal-fired plants in Nevada for electricity to be sold to L.A. We Nevadans get most of our own electricity through hydro (Las Vegas) and geothermal (Reno), located right near the places that get the benefit.

You can't say, "Wake up!" when you are still asleep yourself. This is the 21st Century after all, and even Nevadans understand that.

Proof that our National Lab system is worse than worthless

The alleged best minds and best technology from our finest Universities and National Labs and $10Billion(modest estimate) later, we still don't know where we're going to provide long-term storage of high level nuclear waste.

Obama's solution is to spend unknown $Billions more on the same worthless eggheads to develop another probably worthless solution.

Please indulge me to consider my proposal that the entire paradigm of placing waste in a remote location underground is wrong.

Do not place waste anywhere that it might eventually be forgotten.

Do not place waste where it is goes out of sight.

Do not place waste underground.

Place the burden of keeping and securing the waste upon those that most benefited from its formation.

Instead, build a nuclear-hardened-shielded fortress vault, above ground located in a very densely populated place, i.e, New York City. The former location of the World Trade Center might be an excellent choice as the foundation excavation for a water-impermeable base is already dug. Make it the most secure place in the world with the greatest number of people worrying about it and the greatest number of eyes possible keeping an eye on it. Forever.

At 4500 years old the Great Pyramid of Giza adjacent to a great river has never had any of its subterranean chambers flood. Coincidentally, the World Trade Center sight has a similar, slightly larger footprint to the Great Giza Pyramid. Built atop an elevated foundation with height calculated to account for any possible sea height elevation increase due to an entire melting of the polar ice caps, such a pyramidal structure near the tip of Manhattan would make an interesting and attractive architectural addition to the City.

Long live New York City!