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I am pretty sure the reason is that France did not ban nuclear fuel reprocessing for several decades, and thus recycled large amounts of spent fuel elements. I
by betterunix2 5y ago
I am pretty sure the reason is that France did not ban nuclear fuel reprocessing for several decades, and thus recycled large amounts of spent fuel elements. In the US reprocessing was banned and power plants built up large piles of spent fuel rods as a result.
- pfdietz 5y agoReprocessing was banned in the US for a few years. Carter banned it, Reagan lifted the ban. But reprocessing didn't pick up again because it's economically absurd. The plutonium separated from spent fuel has negative value -- it costs more to produce fuel rods containing it than you save in enriched uranium. Reprocessing may have made sense in a world where enrichment was expensive, uranium resources becoming limited, and fast reactors practical. We do not live in a world with any of those properties. Enrichment prices crashed with gas centrifuges; uranium resources are ample; and fast reactors have turned out to be difficult to make competitive even with thermal nuclear reactors.