THE TRAVESTY OF DISCARDING USED CANDU FUEL

摘要

The current plan worldwide for virtually all used nuclear fuels is costly deep burial to attempt to isolate their long-term radiotoxicity permanently. Alternatively Canada's 50,000 tons spent CANDU fuel, of which only 0.74% of the heavy atoms have been fissioned to extract their energy, could supply 130 times more non-carbon energy using proven economical recycling and fast-neutron technologies. The result in this country alone would currently be $65 trillion of reliable electricity on demand created without greenhouse gas emissions. It would avoid adding 470 billion tons CO_2 to the atmosphere compared to the use of coal, to mitigate climate change. Worldwide recycling of stored spent nuclear fuel and replenishing with depleted uranium in fast-neutron reactors could avoid emitting over 20 trillion tons CO_2, or over six times the current total atmospheric CO_2 content. As added bonuses the long-term radiotoxicity of the used CANDU fuel is effectively eliminated, and even the shorter-lived radioisotopes become valuable stable atoms and minerals that would fetch $3.1 million per ton. That alternative is worth pursuing, instead.