On Sun, 16 Dec 2018 21:07:49 -0000, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , Kristy Ogilvie
wrote:
On Sun, 16 Dec 2018 20:03:23 -0000, Rod Speed wrote:
"Kristy Ogilvie" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 16 Dec 2018 09:06:12 -0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
On 15/12/2018 22:52, Kristy Ogilvie wrote:
On Thu, 13 Dec 2018 17:14:15 -0000, Rod Speed
wrote:
But no one has ever nicked any used fuel rods
being moved for reprocessing in the west.
I don't believe you.
Occasionally by some fresakl of nature Rod speed is vctaully correct.
Used fuel rods are virtually useless and somewhat dangerous. And covered
by so muuch tracking paperwork it is inconcievable that any went missing
unnoticed.
Behind the iron curtain all bets are of course off.
But I thought spent fuel was used for making weapons.
Only in places like North Korea. In the first world they have
dedicated nukes to make whats used in bombs because
those do it much better than power generation nukes.
Its only the dregs of the world that can afford dedicated
nukes for producing whats used in bombs.
So used fuel rods are not useless then.
No, AIUI only 1% of the fuel in the rod will have been used, the rod
can be reprocessed and unused fuel extracted. Whether it's worth doing
that just yet is another matter.
https://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-power...r-reprocessing
"Reprocessing is a series of chemical operations that separates plutonium and uranium from other nuclear waste contained in the used (or €śspent€ť) fuel from nuclear power reactors. The separated plutonium can be used to fuel reactors, but also to make nuclear weapons. In the late 1970s, the United States decided on nuclear non-proliferation grounds not to reprocess spent fuel from U.S. power reactors, but instead to directly dispose of it in a deep underground geologic repository where it would remain isolated from the environment for at least tens of thousands of years."