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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
John Parmentola, John Rawls
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 9-14
Plenary | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13389
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear power has much to offer in addressing the nation's energy security needs in an environmentally acceptable manner. But today's fission technology cannot accomplish this without adding to the ever-increasing volume of high-level waste; these waste concerns may be the limiting factor in the use of nuclear power. Breeder reactors had been considered as a way to solve this problem; however, because of cost and proliferation concerns, breeders are increasingly unlikely to be commercialized. In an attempt to allow nuclear power to reach its full economic potential, General Atomics is developing the Energy Multiplier Module (EM2). EM2 is a gas-cooled compact fast reactor that augments its fissile fuel load with either spent fuel or depleted uranium. This provides the additional fertile material to allow the reactor to both create and burn fuel in situ. This results in a core that will last decades without fuel supplementation or shuffling. The end-of-cycle fuel can be treated in a manner that does not separate actinides, permitting reuse in subsequent generations at reduced proliferation risk. Proliferation resistance is further enhanced because no enrichment is required beyond that needed for the first generation fuel load. Waste problems are mitigated by several factors: higher burnup, fuel use in multiple generations, and conversion of existing waste to energy.