Question by Katrina.K.: why won’t US recycle nuclear waste like some European countries do?
Best answer:
Answer by Yulia Tymoshenko Rules
Because the US doesn’t feel obliged to follow anything it preaches.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Tell me, what do you think nuclear waste is?
A lot of people think it is barrels full of spent fuel.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Almost everything most people think of as nuclear waste is actually very pricey materials which get processed for other uses. Even the uranium metal that is left over after the reactive isotopes are extracted is used.
Most nuclear waste is stuff like used coveralls, gloves and broken scaffold planks that have low levels of contamination. They can’t go into regular landfills or be recycled because they have traces of radioactive material. This stuff does not have enough radioactive material or heavy metals in it to be worth reclaiming for anything either. So there are piles (actually containers) of nuclear industry waste which has to be stored.
But nobody is throwing out any highly radioactive materials. That would be just insane.
The problem here is not right or left wing thinking.
The problem here is poor education coupled with the effects of tabloid journalism.
People see scary crap on TV, or from an alarmist group, and really don’t know any better so they believe it.
The fact that they are consistently lied to by their politicians and industry leaders (especially our American friends) makes it even harder for them too know what the facts are.
Typical Leftist lunacy.
Nuclear power is the cure for our energy needs. Most of the nuclear waste we are arguing about storing can now be recycled into fuel. Nuclear power is efficient, low polluting, and very powerful as well as environmentally friendly if handled responsibly.
Those on the Left either are to scared to even study the facts or don’t want America to succeed economically and hate everything about liberty, freedom, rights and responsibility.
Yep, that’s the Left alright!
(And how do they think they are going to charge all the batteries in all those electric cars they want?)
I’m all for nuclear powered cars. That is what you will be driving once we have both nuclear power plants and batteries that are good enough to operate our vehicles.
That dates back to an executive order from Jimmy Carter.
Oil and coal lobby in Congress.
The scarier nuclear power is, the better for them
Can you give us some more info, like which countries or how it’s recycled? Because it’s my understanding that recycling nuclear waste is a pretty new concept that’s not very widespread. I have a friend who is starting a company, one of the things they will feature is the ability to recycle nuclear waste. So, the US will be recycling nuclear waste soon within the next few years.