NYT: Bush Trying to Negotiate With Russia to Receive Spent Nuclear Fuel.

[NNadir]

In a new round of outsourcing stupidity, the Bushies are now talking about giving up control of spent nuclear fuel (mostly internationally held) that is legally under US control. This negotiation could conceivably lead to the export of our own spent fuel to Russia.

This is the height of stupidity. Spent nuclear fuel in the United States contains enough recoverable energy to fuel all of our current energy, from oil, gas, coal, renewables combined for about 60 years.

Nations with access to the most spent fuel will probably control the future.

There is no limit to Bushian stupidity and trifling away our future.

WASHINGTON, July 8 — The Bush administration said Saturday that it would open formal negotiations with Russia on a long-discussed civilian nuclear agreement that would pave the way for Russia to become one of the world's largest repositories of spent nuclear fuel.

President Vladimir V. Putin has been looking to expand the country's role in the multibillion nuclear power business. The United States has traditionally opposed any such arrangement, in part because of concerns about the safety of Russian nuclear facilities, and because the country has helped Iran build its first major nuclear reactor.

But administration officials said that once Mr. Bush endorsed Mr. Putin's proposal last year for Iran to conduct uranium enrichment inside Russia — rather than in Iran, where the administration fears it would be diverted to weapons — it made little sense to bar ordinary civilian nuclear exchanges with Russia.

In announcing the change of course, the White House made it clear that in return, it expected Mr. Putin's cooperation in what promises to be a tense confrontation with Iran on forcing it to give up the enrichment of uranium. Mr. Bush has charged that the enrichment is intended to feed a secret nuclear weapons program. "We have made clear to Russia that for an agreement on peaceful nuke cooperation to go forward, we will need active cooperation in blocking Iran's attempts to obtain nuclear weapons," said Peter Watkins, a White House spokesman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/washington/09russia.html?hp&ex=1152504000&en=4ce1392f6b096baf&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[bananas]

1. reported in Saturday's Washington Post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x59563

edit: it was the Saturday edition of the Post, but the article was available Friday.

[Dead_Parrot]

2. Hey, why not.

Having given the economy to the Chinese and the nation's soul to the Saudis, might as well go for the Trifecta and give the future to the Russians.

Given that the Russians are currently trying to wrangle thier way back to superpower status via thier energy resources, They're probably pissing themselves with laughter at very idea of the US giving them a couple of zettajoules.

The $64 Trillion question is, would the Russian be smart enough to reprocess it?

[NNadir]

3. Russia has long been committed to MOX fuel.

I have a series of books written back in the 1970's called the "Analytical Chemistry of -" series, which is a fascinating account of all of the chemsitry of various elements. Many in this series were radioactive elements. I own "Technetium, Promethium, Astatine and Francium" "Thorium" "Plutonium" and "Protactinium," among the radioactive elements of this series The side light of these still valuable works is insight into Russian nuclear energy thinking which is in between the lines of every word in these books. (It turns out that the chemistry is really not limited to analytical chemistry. There is much descriptive and technological chemistry discussed.

(One can still see members of this series on line or in used book stores. The English versions were translated by the Isrealis. If your a chemist and you see one, pick it up. It is a purely beautiful series.)

During the 1990 disarmament negotiations the Russians made very clear from the start that they weren't even going to listen to discussions about plutonium disposal. They, quite sensibly, sat at the table and told the truth: This plutonium, even weapons grade plutonium, is a resource that must be used. The Americans at first swallowed hard at the political implications but ultimately accepted that any other conclusion would be nonsensical.

There is no indication that the Russians have changed their thinking.

They will recycle their fuel and do so for many centuries to come, should humanity survive global climate change.

I would argue that instead of getting rid of our spent fuel, we, like they, should be collecting it.

[Dead_Parrot]

4. That's alright, then...

Of course you're still hosed, but that's nothing new. :evilgrin: