Quote:
Originally Posted by Clev
I answered "support" with the following caveats:
1. It needs to be a safer design than the old 50 year old designs we have now. Something self-regulating, like pebble bed.
2. We need to get the political clout together to actually create reprocessing plants. We have the technology to reprocess spent fuel over and over again until there's pretty much nothing left but a tiny bit of low-grade material that's much easier to dispose of (and much less of it!)
3. The NRC needs teeth to actually enforce safety, and Congress needs to leave them the hell alone.
Oh, and I want an RTG for my basement.
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I see your caveat 2 and 3 as being contradictory...
The NRC has a history of being obstructionist to nuclear energy production in general, particularly the chair Gregory Jaczko. In order to support nuclear energy in the short term, you have to have a secure place to store spent fuel. NRC has effectively killed the Yucca Mountain storage facility and redacted all their documents made public through FOIA related to it. If they are given more authority, it will likely eliminate nuclear energy in the US altogether.