Guardian: New generation of nuclear reactors could consume radioactive waste as fuel

[PamW]

1. Correct - read about the Integral Fast Reactor

Fast reactors can turn long-lived radioisotopes into very short-lived radioisotopes.

Read about the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) designed by Argonne National Laboratory
in the '80's and early '90s. Courtesy of PBS Frontline, here is an interview conducted
by Pulitzer-Prize winner Richard Rhodes with nuclear physicist Dr. Charles Till, who at
the time was Associate Director of Argonne:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/interviews/till.html

Q: So they go in, and then those are broken into fission products, or some of it is. Right?

A: Yes.

Q: And you repeat the process.

A: Eventually, what happens is that you wind up with only fission products, that the waste is only fission products that have, most have lives of hours, days, months, some a few tens of years. There are a few very long-lived ones that are not very radioactive.

Too bad this research was terminated in the early '90s by a monumentally short-sighted decision. Read Dr. Till's story of that.

PamW