Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Don't know where you get that idea.

Breeder reactors and nuclear energy economics
Gary — (archived)

Tom Brosz said:

"If combined with a breeder cycle program, nuclear power works out quite well economically, especially in the long term."

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It's my understanding that liquid metal breeder reactors (LMBR) could provide most of our energy needs for the next 500 years. Unfortunately for a variety of technical reasons, LMBRs are very dangerous (the opposite of graphite ball reactors which are extremely safe). Reprocessing old fuel rods from boiling water reactors (chemically removing fission products) could stretch out the economic life span of a fission based economy by many decades. However if the operating mode is to simply burn slightly enriched natural uranium and then dump the old fuel rods down a hole then the economics gets less attractive.

One thing that is certain, there is far too much bomb grade uranium and plutonium in the world today left over from the Cold War. The best way to get rid of this material is to burn it in nuclear reactors (NOT store it intact underground for future weapons use).

The following URL addresses the economics of graphite ball reactors (scroll to the bottom):

http://www.world-nuclear.org/sym/1999/kemm.htm

My home's baseline electricty cost with PG&E is11.430 US cents/kWh. From the above URL, the worst case total generating cost is 1.602 US cents/kWh with a graphite ball reactor. However one should add a caveat to this rosy picture: Radical environmentalists can make nuclear energy infinitely expensive through endless nuisance litigation and infinite loop environmental impact studies (the standard tactic in California). The US Congress will have to remove endless litigation as a weapon for environmentalists before nuclear energy can become economically viable in the United States. This could be achieved by defining a limited number of basic power plant designs and then subjecting those designs to exhaustive safety studies. Afterwards, anyone using a certified design would have immunity from nuisance litigation and infinite loop environmental impact studies.

Gary

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