Question by doubledown: Why isn’t America recycling nuclear waste? I hear other countries are doing it.?
The US has by far more nuclear reactors than any other country, so if it’s feasible to recycle the waste and reuse it then why are we not doing that instead of burning coal?
Best answer:
Answer by Purpose
It is so much easier just to dump it in someone elses back yard. Isn’t that the American way.
Give your answer to this question below!
We do NOT have more nuclear reactors than other countries. France, for instance, has most of their electricity from nuclear power.
We don’t re-enrich spent fuel because of a decision made by the Carter Administration in the 1970s. One of the byproducts of nuclear fission is plutonium, which is used in nuclear weapons. The fear was that terrorist groups may be able to obtain plutonium and make nuclear weapons from operations that process the spent fuel rods. It’s too expensive to start doing it again.
But…with concerns of global warming, it might be coming back.
First, only some of the waste can be reused in any sense. A lot of the waste must be sequestered. Second, some of the used fuel can be reused by processing in a breeder reactor.
One of the big political issues concerns the potential opening of the Yucca Mountain, Nevada nuclear storage facility where the radioactive waste could be stored. A lot of the waste is stored at the reactor sites at the moment. The Nevada storage site would take these materials, from the U.S. and other nations, but there are issues such as the transportation of the materials to the site and potential dangers of ground water contamination just 90 miles from Las Vegas.
Because it’s cheaper to ship it out to another country. Nobody’s going to argue are they? Who would impose a ban on export?