A More Efficient Use of Uranium - 10/22/07

Reactors that are especially wasteful of natural uranium are still being used today.  These were part of a concept that the military designed for the US Navy and the military has never been one for efficiency or thrift.  The high uranium demand expected for future reactors is predicated on the assumption that the reactors will be light water reactors.  These designs are being used today in the US and most of the world today.  The reason that these reactors are so wasteful is due to the reactor depends on thermal or slow neutrons to fission U-235 nuclei.  Masses of depleted uranium are the result when the fuel is enriched in the uranium-235 isotope.  These are being used to poison Iraq and parts of Hawaii.  Unfortunately, only a little fraction of the available energy of the fuel may be used.  What most need to choose to use is the fast neutron reactor.  This type typically use liquid metals like sodium or lead of the main coolant.  Some may even produce more fissile isotopes than they consume.  There are already pilot plants and the Russian navy Alfa-class submarines are using this new technology.  There are wanted consequences.  The depleted uranium and the used reactor fuel would be transformed from wasted into precious resources, thus removing the problem of disposal.  The supply of uranium, plutonium and spent reactor fuel would supply the world demand for reactor fuel for the future. 

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