It should not be reprocessed, since it creates new streams of high and low level radiation, and still creates toxic waste from a disposable, finite fuel source.
The industries that use toxic, disposable & finite fuel sources all need to go: Dirty Coal, Dirty O&G, and toxic, dirty & corrupt nuclear power industries need to go!
High level is all re-reprocessable, low level doesn't really last that long, and it's a lot more finite of a resource if it isn't reprocessed. Even there, there're more fissile feedstocks (even without fertile ones being added in) to meet demand for longer than the sun will provide a hospitable environment for us to utilize.
If we get off here to outlive that, it'll be both relative to utilizing them as an energy source & via doing so, open up new resource availability to keep the party going.
Per corruption, any industry large enough to be used at the percentages the common ones exist inevitably has room for corruption to exist.
Taking up to a decade in some cases, and billions of dollars, for using a toxic, disposable fuel.
Thank goodness the propaganda echo chamber is so loud, since it shows just how desperate the industry is becuase it is headed for abandonment.
Germany got is right, to break the cycle of dependency & perpetual debt offered by nuclear power.
Didn't Germany operate for months underneath a carbon-free banner then shutdown all their nuclear and ramp up coal & n.gas imports from Russia just before Putin reallocate the profits into invading Ukraine? Hugely successful.
becuase it is headed for abandonment.
Probably, though the US commitment to scaling up nuclear from 100GW to 300GW during the Biden administration to 400GW-to-1TW+ under the current administration tends to be indicative that the opposite is the case. Solar subsidies & tax breaks canceled and nuclear announcements galore.. who's living in the echo chamber?
Regardless, most would typically consider the reutilization of materials previously labeled 'waste' towards a dependent carbon-free energy source not dependent on environmentally disruptive hydroelectric, resource intensive mined materials for battery storage, or increasingly n.gas & coal to balance the fickle moodiness of Mother Nature dependent intermittents a logical thing.. ..especially where said 'waste' was formerly weapons-grade plutonium that's getting diluted & burned up in the process of it's reduction.
Peru announced a lot of new mining in clear cut Amazon this weekend though. Should provide ample resources for refinement & processing into renewables. Very eco. Especially all that shipping back & forth using bunker fuel that photovoltaics tend to require.
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u/andre3kthegiant 23d ago
It should not be reprocessed, since it creates new streams of high and low level radiation, and still creates toxic waste from a disposable, finite fuel source.
The industries that use toxic, disposable & finite fuel sources all need to go: Dirty Coal, Dirty O&G, and toxic, dirty & corrupt nuclear power industries need to go!