Clean nuclear power (2. part)

The 450 nuclear power plants which produce 24% of world electricity do not generate greenhouse gas effects, but 8,000 tonnes per year of irradiated, radioactive fuel. The first article which was published in the July-August 1997 issue of this journal, described the composition and management of these fuels. This article wish to show the advantage of 'advanced re-processing', which would separate fission products from actinides, in order to incinerate them separately in dedicated fuels and reactors, which, from an ecological point of view, seems more efficient than burying them underground in deep, geological layers. To rid the planet of waste which is continuing to build up, the first step is to build 'incinerators' which will eliminate fission products by slow neutron assisted neutronic capture, and actinides by fast neutron assisted fission. Various projects have been set up, in particular, in Los Alamos, Japan and the CERN. The Carlo Rubbia hybrid machine operating on the well-known thorium cycle is the most advanced project. An incinerator connected up to standard PWR reactor produces no actinide, and reduces the existing stock of plutonium. However, the proper solution, obviously, is to no longer produce waste along with power; second generation nuclear fission will do this. The CERN team bas studied a clean reactor, producing practically no actinides, or fission products, more or less. Thus, the solution to the problem of waste is at hand, and nuclear power will be cleaner that all other types of power. The world market opening up to clean nuclear power is about 1,300 Gigawatts, or 1,300 plants of 1,000 Megawatts. Remarkable progress is taking place under our very eyes; soon we will have clean power in sufficient quantities, at a lower cost than that of other forms of power. (authors)