At 06:19 PM 1/20/2000 -0800, you wrote:
> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 12:57:01 -0500
> From: "Paul S. Hetrick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> After Three Mile Island, the DOE started a major program to develop
> truly safe nuclear power plants. The design they came up with is
> a breeder reactor that can actually use the wastes from older plants
> as fuel. It's also accident proof.
>
>How does the waste from the older plants get to the newer plants?
>
>Cyndi
Most nuclear power plants use Uranium and have a lot of hot but not
fuel grade U-238 (I think that's the isotope) left. That's the spent
fuel that's hard to get rid of.
Breader reactors take U-238 and convert it to Plutonium (P-239) and then
use it as fuel.
I forget what P-239 breaks down into, but the byproducts are fairly
stable.
This doesn't do anything about contaminated 'trash' but that's not
nearly the trouble spent fuel is.
==>paul
