08-09-2006, 04:16 AM
Just found this interesting article in CSM:
http://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0721/072130.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0721/072130.html
Quote:
Plutonium is said to be extremely toxic. If so, where are all the bodies? A 1981 epidemiological study says that several thousand workers have plutonium in their bodies, all for more than 10 years, and many for about 35 years. No significant health effect attributable to plutonium has been observed so far, the study said.
Realistically, its toxicity is insufficient reason to ban plutonium.
Because plutonium can be used to make bombs, it is argued, we should not use plutonium to make electricity. For this reason, former President Carter stopped the American breeder reactor program and the reprocessing of spent fuel (the extraction of unburned uranium and plutonium from used fuel). Carter said he hoped this action would set an example for other nations. To convince the rest of the world, he called for an international study that became known as INFCE (International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation).
INFCE found that the possibility for theft of bombmaking materials cannot be eliminated by forgoing the reprocessing of spent fuel and breeder reactors. If spent fuel is not reprocessed, the plutonium buried in the waste would have to be guarded against theft for extremely long periods of time, INFCE found. With reprocessing, on the other hand, the waste material has no value to people who are trying to make bombs.
Moreover, INFCE found that effective measures can be taken to minimize the chance of theft or diversion of bombmaking materials, and that such measures must be taken without jeopardizing energy supplies.
Before we close the door on breeder reactors, we ought to look at what we would be giving up. Here is a device that can make electricity out of waste. The energy equivalent of all the coal in the United States can be produced from the 35-year accumulation of depleted uranium. This waste could be converted to fuel in breeder reactors, sufficient fuel to last perhaps a thousand years without any additional mining, the most hazardous part of any energy system. A thousand years' supply of safe, reliable electricity with no additional mining!
Realistically, its toxicity is insufficient reason to ban plutonium.
Because plutonium can be used to make bombs, it is argued, we should not use plutonium to make electricity. For this reason, former President Carter stopped the American breeder reactor program and the reprocessing of spent fuel (the extraction of unburned uranium and plutonium from used fuel). Carter said he hoped this action would set an example for other nations. To convince the rest of the world, he called for an international study that became known as INFCE (International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation).
INFCE found that the possibility for theft of bombmaking materials cannot be eliminated by forgoing the reprocessing of spent fuel and breeder reactors. If spent fuel is not reprocessed, the plutonium buried in the waste would have to be guarded against theft for extremely long periods of time, INFCE found. With reprocessing, on the other hand, the waste material has no value to people who are trying to make bombs.
Moreover, INFCE found that effective measures can be taken to minimize the chance of theft or diversion of bombmaking materials, and that such measures must be taken without jeopardizing energy supplies.
Before we close the door on breeder reactors, we ought to look at what we would be giving up. Here is a device that can make electricity out of waste. The energy equivalent of all the coal in the United States can be produced from the 35-year accumulation of depleted uranium. This waste could be converted to fuel in breeder reactors, sufficient fuel to last perhaps a thousand years without any additional mining, the most hazardous part of any energy system. A thousand years' supply of safe, reliable electricity with no additional mining!
You mean we can get rid of DU by turning it into electricity? Or, I mean, we could have? 
Oh, sure. I know I'm just an unrealistically optimistic liberal who doesn't know a piece of crap from a real conspiracy.