Russia Unveils Detailed Plans To Build 21 New Nuclear Power Units By 2030

[PamW]

4. Contrary to what you may have heard...

intaglio,

Contrary to what you may have heard; dismantling a nuclear power plant is not a big stumbling block.

We've had a number of nuclear power plants totally dismantled in the USA.

For example, consider Michigan's Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant. Here's the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rock_Point

which shows a picture of the nuclear power plant when it was operating on the shores of Lake Michigan.

However, if you click on the coordinates in the upper right hand corner; and click on through to Bing Aerial view; you will find the site of the former nuclear power plant EMPTY.

The anti-nukes like to attempt to make people think that dismantling a nuclear power plant is terribly difficult and just can't be done. However, just because they don't know how to do it doesn't mean that more intelligent people don't know how.

As for the waste, Russia is not like the USA and forbids reprocessing / recycling of the waste.

The only reason the USA has a nuclear waste problem is that we don't allow reprocessing / recycling ( courtesy of the anti-nukes )

Read how recycling works with this interview with nuclear physicist Dr. Charles Till of Argonne National Lab:

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

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.

With recycliing; the waste eventually becomes SHORT-LIVED as Dr. Till explains. There's no reason to have to store waste for thousands of years if you manage the fuel cycle properly. Unfortunately, Congress forbade our nuclear industry from doing that to exacerbate the problem; all at the behest of the anti-nukes.

The good thing about science is that it is true, whether or not you believe in it.
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

PamW