From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Fri Jan 26 2001 - 05:42:10 MST
At 04:56 AM 26/01/01 -0600, Chuck Kuecker rebutted:
>>I mean, this is just nice, clean
>>*plutonium* we're talking about making here, right, all around the world?
>Plutonium inside the IFR would never leave the building - neither would
>high or medium-level wastes. The containment would not be opened after
>commission until the plant had run out of reprocessable fuel.
Sure, the IFR (if it works scaled-up, add standard provisos) sounds pretty
damned cool. But perhaps my objection was misunderstood. I didn't mean
plutonium from well-guarded breeders in the USA, where nothing has ever
been known to go wrong with nuclear reactors (although excursions are
always possible, planes do hit things, terrorists are not without their
cunning ways). I meant they'd be scattered around the world; I meant that
breeders would be built in many countries. They are being used already,
after all, in Japan, France (the Super-Phenix), and for all I know Israel
and Iran. I get really really nervous about machines that make plutonium,
even if burning it produces power that's too cheap to meter. (Cheap crack;
sorry.)
Damien Broderick
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