[geeks] Global warming, was Mr Bill?

[wa2egp at att.net]

> certainly pu-239 can be used as fuel, but those reactors were designed
> with weapons in mind.  if fuel is the point, why bother fueling a
> separate reactor, with all the processing and handling issues
> involved, instead of the one that's making it?  using it in place
> means breeding it no faster than it decays, and our breeders were not
> designed that way.

Well, I'm taking a wild guess here but I imagine that a breeder reactor has to be watched more carefully since it does generate fuel as in runs and possibly to more easily reach critical mass than a U-235 reactor.  So the U-235 reactor was the first design and probably simpler to build, control and have less monitoring sensors.
> 
> we do tend to use the easiest and cheapest first, which perfectly
> explains why we jumped on the nuclear bandwagin when it looked easy
> and cheap, then jumped off when we found out it wasn't.

Between NIMBY and the accelerated breakdown of the metals due to the radiation, they were not as good as an investment as expected.

Bob