Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Nuclear vs. Coal waste by the numbers

This blog has lots of good information about Nuclear Power. One clear advantage of nuclear power is that it doesn't produce much waste. The waste that is produced can mostly be reprocessed into more fuel. Storing nuclear waste until we can learn how to better use it or dispose of it takes far less of our land than disposing of the waste from a typical coal power plant.

An Upchurch Chrestomathy: 6/7/09 - 6/14/09:
"Nuclear power produces about 1 ounce of nuclear waste per person per year with no fuel reprocessing. The bottom line here is that for each pound of nuclear waste we produce, we could be preventing the release of 322,000 pounds of carbon dioxide! The United States doesn’t do any recycling of spent nuclear fuel. 95% of the spent fuel is Uranium or Plutonium that can be recycled and used for more fuel. France uses partial fuel reprocessing and only produces about 3/10ths of an ounce of waste per person.
. . .
What do you think is the real waste disposal problem: 1 oz of nuclear waste or 11 tons of carbon dioxide?"

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