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Recycling of nuclear fuel is more expensive than dry cask storage of nuclear wastes

text-relevantThe High and Hidden Costs of Nuclear Power  POLICY August & September 2010, No. 162 Review By Henry Sokolski…….Discouraging the use of government financial incentives to promote commercial nuclear power. This recommendation was made by the Congressional Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. It would clearly include discouraging new, additional federal loan guarantees for nuclear fuel or power plant construction of the type now being proposed by President Obama and the nuclear industry. ………
Today, the lowest cost interim solution to storing spent fuel (good for 50 to several hundred years) is dry cask storage, above ground, at reactor sites. Recycling spent fuel, on the other hand, is not only more expensive, but runs much greater proliferation, terrorism, and nuclear theft risks.
 For these reasons, President Bush in 2004, the iaea in 2005, and the bipartisan U.S. Congressional Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism in 2008 all called for the imposition of a moratorium on commercial reprocessing. This reflects economic common sense. Unfortunately, in many countries, full employment, development of nuclear weapons options, and other political or military concerns often override straightforward cost-benefit analysis.
In the U.S., this tendency can be avoided by having the nuclear utilities themselves assume a significant portion of the costs of nuclear waste management and reactor site decommissioning. This would require changing the law in the U.S., which stipulates that all of the costs of final spent fuel storage are to be paid for by off-budget federal user fees. …….http://www.psr.org/nuclear-bailout/resources/the-high-and-hidden-costs-of.pdf

April 1, 2015 - Posted by | reprocessing

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