Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ...
by jabl on Friday September 04, 2020 @02:32AM
(#24372287)
There are reprocessing methods that are less sensitive to proliferation, such as pyroprocessing where you never have pure plutonium.
Still, there are risks, and I agree it makes sense for reprocessing facilities to be government controlled.
That being said, without also deploying breeder reactors at scale there's not a lot of benefit from reprocessing.
The reason for not dumping it in the ocean is exactly as stated above. It's extremely valuable, in large part because of the plutonium content, and it's senseless to throw away something so valuable that the nation may eventually have a need for.