" With recycling off the table, the waste produced might remain an expensive and hazardous problem in the United States."
With statements like that above, it makes it hard for them to ever consider fixing the problem, but they are looking at doing so in the US just the same, it may in the end save them a lot of money and make for a much cleaner environment in the process, people with their head up their bum really annoy me sometimes, the can never see the forest for the trees!
Why won't the U.S. recycle nuclear waste?
President Jimmy Carter
Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock
Plenty of nuclear-powered nations see recycling as a viable solution to their waste issues, so what is preventing the United States from joining them? The story starts back in the 1970s when Jimmy Carter was serving his first and only presidential term. Despite being famous for his peanut farming origins, Carter actually had an impressive nuclear physics background. While in the U.S. Navy, he served on the Sea Wolf, one of the first nuclear submarines. He studied nuclear physics at Schenectady's Union College, and he personally assisted the Canadian government in averting a disaster when one of the reactors at the Chalk River plant in Ontario was damaged (via PBS). Carter was also skeptical about nuclear recycling, and that skepticism remains the foundation of the U.S. nuclear recycling policy to this day.
Carter banned the recycling of nuclear fuel in the U.S. back in 1977, citing the expenses involved and the risks that spent fuel could be used to make nuclear weapons. This policy was recommended worldwide but rejected by other nuclear-powered nations, several of which currently recycle portions of their spent fuel.
Despite his qualifications, the oldest living president may have been wrong in this case. Used reactor fuel is difficult to convert into the material you're likely to find inside a fusion or fission bomb (via Brookings). France is one of the most nuclear-reliant nations on Earth and gets a large portion of its energy through recycling. Nuclear power is a potential way forward as the world looks toward carbon-neutral energy sources. With recycling off the table, the waste produced might remain an expensive and hazardous problem in the United States.
Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/955680/why-nuclear-fuel-recycling-is-banned-in-america/?utm_campaign=clip
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