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Published online 2 July 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.619

News: Briefing

US nuclear recycling faces the axe

Department of Energy cancels reprocessing project.

Geoff Brumfiel

Earlier this week, the administration of President Barack Obama quietly cancelled plans for a large-scale facility to recycle nuclear fuel. The move may prove a fatal blow to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) set up by previous president George W.

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  • A big mistake, Mr.Obama. Nuclear energy is the futute, and nuclear recycling is the technology. Otherwise, US will depend from Russia, both in Space and Nuclear sides.

    • 04 Jul, 2009
    • Posted by: Nikola Nikolov

  • The shutdown is a good move. The economics of reprocessing are intrinsically awful, reducing to zero the chances of any large-scale "nuclear renaissance" based on such processes. A thorough review of this matter for the International Panel on Fissile Materials is given by physicist Frank von Hippel at http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/FvHReprocPanelCarnegie26June07Rev.pdf

    • 05 Jul, 2009
    • Posted by: Larry Gilman