Re:Concordia Students Set to Launch Most Powerful Rocket Dev...
by Schroedingersat on Thursday February 02, 2023 @06:32AM
(#34625168)
You're conflating two things and applying them to a third unrelated situation.
High enriched U is a proliferation risk because it's easier to enrich to weapons grade.
Fuel rods that have been through a full fuel cycle are 'useless' because of the Pu 240.
Fuel rods that have been in a reactor for 1-2 years (present in every 'civilian' reactor at all times) are neither of these things. And contain weapons grade Pu that can be used if you have Pu separation facilities.
It's literally why USA had been more or less legally trying to stop everyone from running highly-enriched fuels in reactor (or generally make itself a nuisance for projects that in turn require no enrichment at all, because that stops dependency on limited enrichment facilities).