"It's time to give up on breeder reactors" (free pdf at fissilematerials.org)

[bananas]

http://www.fissilematerials.org/blog/2010/06/its_time_to_give_up_on_br.html

It's time to give up on breeder reactors
By Zia Mian on June 2, 2010 8:12 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

An article "It's time to give up on breeder reactors" in the May/June 2010 issue of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists summarizes the analysis in IPFM research report No. 8 "Fast Breeder Reactor Programs: History and Status."

The article by Thomas Cochran, Harold Feiveson, Zia Mian, M. V. Ramana, Mycle Schneider, and Frank von Hippel argues that after more than 60 years and $100 billion in research and development spending, the vision of plutonium-fueled fast breeders remains as far from reality as ever.

(Local PDF copy)

free pdf at fissilematerials.org: http://www.fissilematerials.org/blog/docs/Breeders_BAS_May_June_2010.pdf

[Nederland]

1. Interesting argument

after more than 60 years and $100 billion in research and development spending, the vision of plutonium-fueled fast breeders remains as far from reality as ever.

I guess based on this logic, we should eliminate funding to cure cancer too... :eyes:

[bananas]

2. good comparison - breeder reactors are like cancer

Trying to solve the problems with breeder reactors is like trying to cure cancer.

Some of the things we've learned about cancer and breeder reactors:

- we don't need or want either of them
- it's better to avoid the causes (carcinogens) than to try to "cure" them
- the word "cure" just means 5-year survival
- early detection and treatment/removal is important before they spread and metastasize
- sometimes the "cure" is worse than the disease - for many cancers, the side effects of treatments are so bad and the probablility of "cure" so low that many people prefer to go untreated and live their remaining time in a higher quality of life

We don't need breeder reactors, and we don't need need new non-breeder reactors.

[joshcryer]

3. "It’s time to give up on breeder reactors" - "The breeder reactor dream is not dead"

Hard to take such a substance-less article seriously.

[bananas]

5. It's just a dream, some people haven't woken up yet.

It’s time to give up on breeder
reactors

Since the dawn of the nuclear age, nuclear
energy advocates have dreamed of a
reactor that could produce more fuel than it
used. More than 60 years and $100 billion
later, that vision remains as far from reality
as ever.

<snip>

[kristopher]

4. K&R