By Ian Hore-Lacy, for Energy Post. – December 23
Anti-nuclear campaigner Jim Green declared in Energy Post recently that
fast reactors are dying a slow death. He used a lot of information from
the World Nuclear Association to support his argument. It is good to
see that he does not take issue with anything we have published in our
information papers. However, he is selective. For example, he makes too
much of countries backpedalling on the technology due to the effect of
abundant low-cost uranium likely to last to mid century, even with
substantially increased demand from conventional reactors. He also
points to the sort of technical and other failures that can be expected
with any innovative technology. So, let me set out the main elements of
the fast neutron reactor (FNR) picture as I see it, which is much more
positive than Green’s vision. When the first fast reactors were built
and operated in the 1960s-70s, a shortage of uranium
was feared, and this drove policy to utilize that uranium much more
fully. We now know that uranium is abundant, and can be recovered
economically from low-grade ores. Today the development of FNRs is
justified rather by the desire to burn long-lived actinides from used
light water (conventional) reactor fuel. Read on...http://www.theenergycollective.com/energy-post/2395377/fast-reactors-are-alive-and-kicking
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