Fragen? Antworten! Siehe auch: Alternativlos
The first commercial nuclear plant to use thorium was Indian Point Unit I, a pressurized water reactor near New York City that began operation in 1962. Attempts to recover uranium 233 from its irradiated thorium fuel were described, however, as a “financial disaster.” The last serious attempt to use thorium in a commercial reactor was at the Fort St. Vrain plant in Colorado, which closed in 1989 after 10 years and hundreds of equipment failures, leaks, and fuel failures. There were four failed commercial thorium ventures; prior agreement makes the US government responsible for their wastes.
Die Details über das amerikanische Atomprogramm sind atemberaubend. Erstens fehlen ihnen da jetzt knapp 100 kg waffenfähiges Uran 233, und zweitens sowas hier:Then, an Energy Department safety investigation found a national repository for uranium 233 in a building constructed in 1943 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The repository was in dreadful condition; investigators reported an environmental release from a large fraction of the 1,100 containers “could be expected to occur within the next five years in that some of the packages are approaching 30 years of age and have not been regularly inspected.” The Energy Department later concluded that the building had “deteriorated beyond cost-effective repair. Significant annual costs would be incurred to satisfy current DOE storage standards, and to provide continued protection against potential nuclear criticality accidents or theft of the material.”
Oh Mein Gott.Die Geschichte geht dann noch weiter. Das Department of Energy hat sich dann entschlossen, das Uran einfach nach Nevada zu schicken, damit es dort auf eine Müllhalde gekippt wird. Nicht irgendeine Müllhalde, eine bei der Nevada Nuclear Security Site. Immerhin. Aber das Verklappen dort würde gegen die diversen Regeln verstoßen, die es da gibt. Lösung: Die Regeln kommen vom Department of Energy, also haben sie sie halt weggemacht für den Fall.