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Surprise-surprise, but spent fuel rods contain plutonium (~1%) as well. The idea is that you build breeder reactors and do reprocessing in countries which alrea
by fuoqi 3y ago
Surprise-surprise, but spent fuel rods contain plutonium (~1%) as well. The idea is that you build breeder reactors and do reprocessing in countries which already have nuclear weapons, while other countries get completed fuel rods for the classic PWRs. You prevent siphoning by mandating that all spent fuel rods must be returned to the country of origin.
- londons_explore 3y agoThat would never work for human reasons. Specifically, a non-nuclear nation will never want their energy security to depend on the goodwill of nuclear nations. At any time, those nuclear nations could turn around and jack the price of fuel rods 100x, while also denying the non-nuclear nations the ability to make their own with the threat of sanctions or war.
- pasc1878 3y agoSo the same issue as oil - and actually any resource you have to get. Most resources are only found in limited places on Earth.
- photochemsyn 3y agoLike sunlight and wind?
- pasc1878 3y agoI did say most. But in those cases yes - sunshine is not there for at least half the time and some areas have rather a lot of clouds. Wind also some areas e.g. NW Europe have a lot but others don't.
- Phrenzy 3y agoYeah, kinda of. Not a lot of sunlight in Northern Europe. Not a lot of wind in some areas.
- pjc50 3y agoJapan used UK and French reprocessing facilities for almost twenty years: https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/transport-of-nuclear-materials/japanese-waste-and-mox-shipments-from-europe.aspx https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-c...
- m4rtink 3y agoIts like that already even for nuclear plant technology and support. And unlike with oil or coal, you can (and many do) stockpile years worth of fuel rods, just in case you need to find another suplier.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago> At any time, those nuclear nations could turn around and jack the price of fuel rods 100x, while also denying the non-nuclear nations the ability to make their own with the threat of sanctions or war. That's assuming they act as a cartel. But if the US tried to do this, Russia would sell them the material just to stick it to the US, and vice versa. Not only that, the top four countries for energy production representing more than half of global power generation are all nuclear nations. The countries in the top 10 without nuclear weapons are Japan, Brazil, Canada, South Korea and Germany, of which only Brazil would have any significant concern about being cut off by western nuclear powers. And Brazil is at an equatorial latitude that implies they would benefit from a higher proportion of solar regardless.
- nine_k 3y agoJapan also has its own nuclear industry; they are likely a few months from constructing a nuclear weapon if need be. Their constitution limits their military to self-defense though, so they don't have a doctrinal need to build nukes.