Comments loweth has made

Reprocessing/treatment momentum

I (previously) worked on developing techniques for waste treatment and recycling for the Hanford site. The Hanford site is a big mess, lots of leaking waste tanks and so forth resulting from a long history of people not knowing how to treat and store nuclear waste. However -- the plans for nuclear fuel reprocessing are distinct from the existing waste problems at Hanford.

From a practical point of view, Hanford might be a good choice for a reprocessing site -- the added focus on technology development at Hanford (rather than at some other facility) will keep the pressure on the waste treatment program there.

Given the major cost and schedule overruns in the current Hanford waste treatment plant, I fear that the DOE might just "cut & run" at some point -- this is less likely to happen if they have an interest at Hanford outside of cleaning up the existing mess.

One other comment: if you consider nuclear power at all worthwhile, reprocessing is a good idea. It's unfortunate (tragic, maybe) that nuclear waste has been so poorly handled, and that it doesn't receive more attention. I think that ocusing on reprocessing will improve our treatment of the existing waste.On When it's the Bush administration talking about Hanford posted 2 years, 7 months ago 9 Responses