How to deal safely with used nuclear fuel

 

Dear Editor,

 

I was shocked to read the opinions presented in the May 26th editorial: How to deal safely with nuclear waste.

 

Imagine, a mass media nuclear power article (on a national level no less) with well reasoned thoughts based solely on the facts and not the emotionally twisted 1970s no-nukes mentality!  As a proud employee of Canada’s nuclear industry I found it to be like a breath of fresh air.

 

That being said there are some worthy additions necessary to supplement the editorial.  First is the term nuclear waste.  This is somewhat misleading since it is technically possible to reprocess the used nuclear fuel to extract the remaining fissile Uranium.  In the future this will be economically feasible as well and today's waste will become tomorrow's energy source.  Second it is important to emphasize how little used nuclear fuel is actually out there.  In terms of volume Canada's 43 year supply of fuel is equivalent to the amount of garbage Toronto ships to Michigan every single day!  Over the course of these 43 years Canada’s reactors have generated 1,930 billion kilowatt-hours of emissions free energy preventing the release of a billion tonnes of greenhouse gases and other air pollution.  Talk about fresh air!

 

Andrew L. Daley

Toronto On