I never saw this episode of 60 minutes when it aired in 2007, but the story tells of how France has ignored the nay-sayers of nuclear power, in fact some would say shown them that much of what they go on about regarding the downside of going nuclear is false (apologies in advance for the quality and the sudden end of the video). I wonder why so few people know about the latest in nuclear technology? Here are some statistics for you:In 2007, 14% of the world’s electricity came from nuclear power, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for 56.5% of nuclear generated electricity. There are 439 reactors in operation in the world, in 31 countries. According to the World Nuclear Association, during the 1980s one new nuclear reactor started up every 17 days on average, and by the year 2015 this rate could increase to one every 5 days. Nuclear power gives France the cleanest air of any
industrialized country, and the cheapest electricity in all of Europe. France gets 80% of its electricity from 58 nuclear plants. France reprocesses its nuclear waste to reduce its mass and make more energy from it. Reprocessing can potentially recover up to 95% of the remaining uranium and plutonium in spent nuclear fuel, putting it into new mixed oxide fuel. This results in a reduction in long term radioactivity within the remaining waste, since this is largely short-lived fission products, and reduces the volume of waste by over 90%. France is generally cited as the most successful reprocessor, but it presently only recycles 28% (by mass) of the yearly fuel use, 7% within France and another 21% in Russia.
If you watch the 60 minutes clip, you'll see that the main reason Americans have never considered reprocessing the nuclear waste is because of the risk of it falling into the wrong hands (terrorists). I wonder if Americans know this. All this time, most of us in the West were under the impression that nuclear waste is this huge problem, but France seems to be demonstrating the opposite.
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