I'd like to write my term paper on the reprocessing of nuclear fuels. While such reprocessing is illegal in the U.S, both England and France have reprocessing planets and Japan is currently building one. In my paper, I'll answer, or at least ask, the following questions:
- How does reprocessing work?
- What are the advantages of reprocessing? (better use or resources, less storage of radioactive materials, energy independance etc.)
- What are the disadvantages of reprocessing? (pollution, security, economic inviability, etc. )
- Could reprocessing be used to alleviate the need to store radioactive materials, and if so how much could it improve the problem?
- Why is the reprocessing of nuclear fuels illegal in the U.S.?
- Who does reprocessing benefit and who does it hurt?
Possible sources
- The MIT Study, the "Future of Nuclear Power". I went to a talk last summer given by someone associated with the Japanese reprocessing plant. When asked for his response to this study he didn't disagree with it, but instead claimed that it didn't apply to Japan.
- Two articles in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists entitled "Magical Thinking" and "Japan's Nuclear Twillight Zone". http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=ma01makhijani, http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=mj01burnie
- Testimonies before Congress on issues related to current U.S. nonproliferation policy including reprocessing policy. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/npp/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1492
- A document related to testimony about nuclear terrorism given at the French National Assembly. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/pdf/NPP/011210Terrorisme.pdf
- A Washington Post article about reprocessing. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A6513-2001Jul1¬Found=true
- A description of a recent discussion with Japanese plant officials about reprocessing. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=print&id=15955
- BNFL press releases, some of which are about reprocessing. http://www.bnfl.com/index.aspx?page=5
- Predictions of world waste plutonium levels. http://www.isis-online.org/publications/puwatch/civilpu.html
Posted at Mar 29/2005 08:19 PM:
Peter Saeta: This looks like a great topic, Meghan. Let me know if you have questions on leads. I have a couple of books advocating nuclear power, although I'm not sure how much they address the reprocessing issue. You may want to look into the (fairly) recent nuclear accident in Japan, which involved reprocessing (I believe).
Posted at Apr 15/2005 07:05 AM:
Peter Saeta: It looks like you have some good leads. I'm looking forward to learning lots from your paper!
The notes I used to write my paper.
Reprocessing Notes.doc
My paper is attached below.
