Plutonium and uranium made surplus by the end of the Cold War have an energy value in the tens to hundreds of billions of dollars depending on how the comparisons are computed. Even so, several groups whose members cringe at the idea of throwing away even a single aluminum can are adamantly advocating a policy aimed at treating this material as waste and buried underground without first extracting any value. We think they are being illogical.
As a scientist whose career includes the management of a plutonium laboratory, I am keenly aware of the many attributes of plutonium. Over the years I have also learned that advice from nuclear critics about plutonium is consistently unreliable. The critics are again offering unreliable information to the Secretary of Energy about the disposition of…
In a press release carefully coordinated with mass internet mailings to all the old anti-technology political action groups, Nader’s well-funded Critical Mass organization tries to create the impression of “a growing coalition of national, international and grassroots groups” joined by “many scientists, experts and the public.” But there is nothing spontaneous or grass-rootsy about this…
Please note: This press release is directly quoted from the listed organizations. It does not in any way reflect the position of Atomic Energy Insights or Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. ******* CRITICAL MASS ENERGY PROJECT ******* Nuclear Power Reactor Fuel GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH MILITARY PRODUCTION NETWORK NUCLEAR CONTROL INSTITUTE NUCLEAR…
For more than forty years, the United States and the Soviet Union built nuclear weapons and aimed them at each other’s heartlands. The process of building those weapons was expensive in strict monetary terms and in terms of sacrificing investments in more productive enterprises. Now, however, the confrontational attitude between the two countries has been…
On December 9, 1996, the United States Department of Energy issued a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement that advocated an investigation of two possible alternatives for handling plutonium from decommissioned nuclear weapons. One option is to combine the plutonium with uranium to produce mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel that can be used in conventional nuclear reactor plants. The…