Pebble Bed reactor technology is the way to go, in my opinion:
Posted on 08/16/2009 6:20:51 PM PDT by neverdem
We are so ready to give our BODIES to Obama on the altar of health care reform yet we scream we don’t want another Three Mile Island so no reactors can be built in the US. His health care plan will kill you long before a reactor will. Times have changed, technology regarding reactors have changed, but the US still REACTS to Three Mile Island.
More “proof” that we need government health care - after all, the cost of such tests will surely skyrocket, thus further driving up the cost of medical care - so the government obviously needs to step in...
[/sarcasm]
China would probably be glad to put up half a dozen and actually stagger the maintenance of the blasted things. They use nuclear medicine too.
Is Chernobyl “hot” enough that stuff could be taken to it robotically to be transmuted?
Pebble Bed reactor technology is the way to go, in my opinion:
Los Alamos produces medical radioisotopes, primarily strontium-82.
Extensive expertise in radioisotope production
The quantity of material seems to be the problem. Pipsqueak sources like this can’t match the facilities that were operating in Canada and the Netherlands but which inconveniently failed about the same time and have to be rebuilt.
A few years ago the world output was large enough that my veterinarian had no problem getting sufficient technetium to treat a thyroid problem in a pet cat, adding a couple of lives or so to her mangy hide. You can bet all these “boutique” uses will completely go away, until Canada and the Netherlands are back.
CANADIAN reactor will not be back on line until early 2010
July 10, 2009 11:24 a.m. ESTAHN Staff
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The United States is taking advantage of the medical isotopes shortage in Canada caused by the unexpected shutdown of the Chalk River National Research Universal reactor to build its medical isotopes production capacity.
Parrish Staples of the National Nuclear Security Administration said a Wednesday meeting of the National Academies in Washington evaluated the various ways the U.S. could convert reactors in the country to boost domestic production of technetium. Staples said the isotopes crisis caught the attention of White House and other major American agencies. He estimated it would cost $120 million to build an American facility capable of producing low enriched uranium.
With the U.S. entry into isotopes production, Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Program director Alan Kuperman said it is a signal for Canada that it would be a huge waste of money and effort for Ottawa to remain in isotope production in the long term.
His statement dovetails a policy set by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. After the temporarily closure of the Chalk River facility, which may last until 2010, Harper announced that Canada would bow out of the medical isotopes production business.
A joint statement from Canada's Minister of Natural Resources Lisa Raitt and Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq said international discussions with isotope producers have helped minimize the impact of the isotopes shortage in Canada and other parts of the world.
The U.S., Canada and Mexico are signatories to the 2005 North American Security and Prosperity Partnership which will convert civil HEU reactors in the continent to LEU fuel by 2011. The U.S. has six domestic research reactors on its list targeted for conversion, Mexico has one and Canada three.
NNSA administrator Thomas D'Agostino, in a presentation to the Institute for Defense Analyses on February, disclosed that after two years of study, he decided to transform the CMR plutonium research and development facility in Los Alamos and the 9212 facility at Y-12 in Tennessee into smaller and more efficient operations.
"We will construct and operate the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility... as a replacement for portions of the CMR facility," the NNSA head said. D'Agostino added, "We plan to construct and operate a Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 as a replacement for existing facilities.... that face significant safety and maintenance challenges to their continued operation."
He said the transformation of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex to a nuclear security enterprise is his second key challenge as head of the agency.
Count on the greens to resist hard every step of the way. When the smoke from the lawsuits clears, that 2011 renovation will be more like 2020.
The Canadian reactor is down for major repair work- it was built in the 1950s and there have been some leaks in the past couple of years. The Dutch reactor is offline for routine maintenance.
There was a project to build two reactors to replace the Chalk River facility, but it was cancelled because of massive cost overruns and delays.
Ahhh...they coudn’t even get it out of planning and design?
BTW, does anyone know whether we still have any domestic sources of tritium? I recall problems with our supply in the past, but don't recall whether they were resolved. We can't STAY a nuclear power without such a supply and I can easily imagine Ø treating it like Bush's Moon program.
December 4, 2006
The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced today that it has started operations at a facility that restores its ability, for the first time in 18 years, to manufacture a key component of the nation's nuclear defense.
The Tritium Extraction Facility (TEF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) has begun operations and tritium can now be extracted from target rods, ensuring a sustainable supply of tritium for the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile.
Could this be part of the problem?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690627522614525.html
The cause of the Chernobyl accident was performing an experiment in a power reactor.
That is what keeps power reactors from being used for these purposes. One can kill a lot more than two birds with a power reactor...
Don’t worry,India is coming to the rescue with their new unit based in Bangalore. Fewer regs and better profits.
Thanks for the link.
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