Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
I'm sure there's a good answer, but I wonder why it's easier/cheaper to mine trace amounts of U235 and refine it than to take the already concentrated "waste" and refine it again?
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MSR Thorium cycle “recycles” it’s own waste so you end up with 99% less spent fuel waste.
When considering “recycling spent rods” it’s assumed nobody, not even the government can handle it without a proliferation risk.
In terms of cradle to grave costs including the fact our government runs special antique nuclear plants to create bomb making materials
It becomes clear recycling rods is likely cheaper in the long run but we don’t make sense in this country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
Then why are there coal shortages and rationing if growth has been flat for 7 years? Seems like flat growth is pretty easy to plan for, not something that causes export bans, rationing and rolling blackouts.
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Our country for better or for worse follows their own version of LEAN materials strategy even when interest is zero and have more inventory would make sense.
We’ve built ourselves into a corner that only a single company on the planet can make each component within the supply chain and they are inflexible and incapable of producing any more or less than designed and are geologically located on opposite ends of the globe.
“The old way” of doing things (not lean) meant more vertical integration and local sources, backup and sitting ready to online equipment to handle surges or supply shortages , we have become extremely addicted to government subsidized freight and running 95-105% of peak design for decades.
Anyone who is vertically integrated, keeps proper backup and raw stock on hand is likely doing very well at the moment
Toyota who is supposedly the king of lean is vertically integrated and had emergency stock hence why it took longer for them to succumb to the pandemic
AKA Toyota by US standards isn’t lean because they keep inventory and have proper buildout and downtime.
China for all its posturing follows most of our bad behaviors, few of our good ones and a few terrible practices it came up with on its own