Can’t we reprocess spent fuel rods into plutonium with breeder reactors? And modernize our nuclear arsenal at the same time?
First, we need to stop incurring waste storage fines. One of Trump's goals for 2025 should be to re-open Yucca Mountain. It's already complete, just need to staff it and start using it. Obama pulled the plug on it for political reasons, there is no safety concern or other scientific reason to argue against using it. Also, Americans are paying for the construction costs of that facility in their utility bills, every month. If we can eventually reprocess the stuff and benefit, so much the better.
Yes. The only things stopping it are the green hanky stompers.
Got me, I just read an article the other day talking about the 10s of billions the government owes nuclear facilities for disposal of spent fuel rods.
“Can’t we reprocess spent fuel rods into plutonium with breeder reactors? And modernize our nuclear arsenal at the same time?”
Yes we can reprocess if we have the will and $20 billion to build a la Hague sized plant. That would turn spent fuel that’s 96% still fuel back into fuel getting 100 times as much energy out of it with multiple reprocessing passes. Thousands of years worth of power with just the uranium already mined in the USA right now just sitting in storage casks and depleted uranium canisters. Fast reactors and reprocessing are the only way for our species to keep our standards of living when not if liquid hydrocarbons run short, they will never run out because they will be too expensive to use for anything other than high value products llike medications and carbon fiber composites ect.
As for nuclear weapons spent fuel is reactor grade PU it has way too much PU240/242 to be used as weapons grades. Even though PUREX process yields 99.9% pure PU it’s a mix of 239/240/242 and that’s crap for making it go boom. The world nuclear powers put weapons grade into power reactors specifically to make it not weapons grade. It’s devilishly hard to separate isotopes of the same element especially when they are radioactive and chemically toxic PU is nasty stuff not only radioactive it is as chemically toxic as nerve gas when ingested or inhaled. You need vapor to do isotopic separation be that pure metal vapor via very high temps or some kind of halide metal compound again at 1000+C then you need cyclotron or laser ion or mass spectrometry to get chemically identical but isotopic mass difference to separate and you need at least 94% 239 in your final mix to barely be weapons grade. So you could but it would be a Manhattan level project billion and billions of dollars. It’s much easier to just put uranium in a heavy water reactor or a graphite mmoderated one and burn it for six months or less this makes tons of 239 with little 240 and virtually no 242 since the last two only happen after 239 is formed and than it captures two or more neutrons. The USA used the graphite method and still does, India China and Pakistan used the heavy water way no one has ever used reactor grade then isotopic enrichment way.