3 ms·

The French have been doing it for decades already with not a single casualty: > https://www.orano.group/en/nuclear-expertise/from-exploration-to-recycling/worl

The French have been doing it for decades already with not a single casualty: > https://www.orano.group/en/nuclear-expertise/from-exploration-to-recycling/world-leader-in-recycling-used-nuclear-fuels https://www.orano.group/en/nuclear-expertise/from-exploratio... It's not that they are doing the recycling in a cookie factory.

Klinky 6y ago
La Hague dumps radioactive waste liquids into the North Sea. Reactors currently cannot run 100% on MOX. Separation of Plutonium in the recycling process has proliferation concerns. Other countries have found building similar recycling plants challenging due to cost, with DoE estimating $50+ billion. La Hague was initially designed to extract Plutonium for weapons use, which likely justified its costs at the time. The Marcoule site where MOX fuel is manufactured had an explosion in 2011, which did result in a fatality.
- webreac 6y ago
  La Hague used to dump small quantities of radioactive liquid (mainly water used to clean barrels that contained weakly radioactiv waste) in Nort Sea. When I left (in 1999), the project to completely stop this dump was well advanced. The idea was to vaporized the water and collect the remains in a barrel. You are right that we have a lot of plutonium that we can not use. The intent of superphenix was to use this plutonium. It failed.
  - p_l 6y ago
    Apparently it burned quite a lot of it, though? Pity that it got closed, I hope technical issues are fixed and a new device based on better understanding replaces it.
- pyrale 6y ago
  > La Hague dumps radioactive waste liquids into the North Sea. That would be a long pipeline, because La Hague is facing the channel, not the north sea.
  - Klinky 6y ago
    Sorry, it flows from the channel into the North Sea.
    - pyrale 6y ago
      The Hague is closer to the Irish sea, and currents at that location tend to push to the atlantic rather than into the North sea.
      - Klinky 6y ago
        Scientific studies show its pollution reaches the North Sea. Simple current maps show current flows through the channel into the North Sea. However, thank you for highlighting it also pollutes the Irish Sea, channel and Atlantic.
        pyrale 6y ago
        Interesting. Do you have a link to the study ?
        Klinky 6y ago
        https://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/wang2/docs/iaea-tecdoc-1587.pdf https://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/wang2/docs/iae... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720332204 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972... https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6177659_Radionuclide_speciation_in_effluent_from_La_Hague_reprocessing_plant_in_France https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6177659_Radionuclid...
natmaka 6y ago
If only it could be so easy! The reality is that the French try hard to put high-level waste deep in under the ground. After more than 50 years of atomic plants and nearly 80 of lab reactors the French haven't a single adequate repository. The most advanced project may open in 2025. An English concise description is already amusing, please read it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meuse/Haute_Marne_Underground_Research_Laboratory#Cig%C3%A9o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meuse/Haute_Marne_Underground_... A more complete version, in French: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cig%C3%A9o https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cig%C3%A9o

Klinky 6y ago

La Hague dumps radioactive waste liquids into the North Sea. Reactors currently cannot run 100% on MOX. Separation of Plutonium in the recycling process has proliferation concerns. Other countries have found building similar recycling plants challenging due to cost, with DoE estimating $50+ billion. La Hague was initially designed to extract Plutonium for weapons use, which likely justified its costs at the time. The Marcoule site where MOX fuel is manufactured had an explosion in 2011, which did result in a fatality.

webreac 6y ago
La Hague used to dump small quantities of radioactive liquid (mainly water used to clean barrels that contained weakly radioactiv waste) in Nort Sea. When I left (in 1999), the project to completely stop this dump was well advanced. The idea was to vaporized the water and collect the remains in a barrel. You are right that we have a lot of plutonium that we can not use. The intent of superphenix was to use this plutonium. It failed.
- p_l 6y ago
  Apparently it burned quite a lot of it, though? Pity that it got closed, I hope technical issues are fixed and a new device based on better understanding replaces it.
pyrale 6y ago
> La Hague dumps radioactive waste liquids into the North Sea. That would be a long pipeline, because La Hague is facing the channel, not the north sea.
- Klinky 6y ago
  Sorry, it flows from the channel into the North Sea.
  - pyrale 6y ago
    The Hague is closer to the Irish sea, and currents at that location tend to push to the atlantic rather than into the North sea.
    - Klinky 6y ago
      Scientific studies show its pollution reaches the North Sea. Simple current maps show current flows through the channel into the North Sea. However, thank you for highlighting it also pollutes the Irish Sea, channel and Atlantic.
      - pyrale 6y ago
        Interesting. Do you have a link to the study ?
        Klinky 6y ago
        https://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/wang2/docs/iaea-tecdoc-1587.pdf https://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/wang2/docs/iae... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720332204 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972... https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6177659_Radionuclide_speciation_in_effluent_from_La_Hague_reprocessing_plant_in_France https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6177659_Radionuclid...

natmaka 6y ago

If only it could be so easy! The reality is that the French try hard to put high-level waste deep in under the ground. After more than 50 years of atomic plants and nearly 80 of lab reactors the French haven't a single adequate repository. The most advanced project may open in 2025. An English concise description is already amusing, please read it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meuse/Haute_Marne_Underground_Research_Laboratory#Cig%C3%A9o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meuse/Haute_Marne_Underground_... A more complete version, in French: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cig%C3%A9o https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cig%C3%A9o