KitemanSA wrote:And SBWRs are better yet and ESBWRs are even more so and they are ALL "STUPID technology".
Any technology that causes the need to store MASSIVE amounts of "waste" that is the combination of short lived fusion products and long lived actinides is JPS (just plain stupid). All solid core reactors do that unless reprocessed, but reprocessing such fuel isolates material for WMD. Using U235/U239 solid fuel is JPS. Go liquid Thorium, dude. (E.G., molten salt (U233/T232) reactor) with continuous on-line processing to remove the fission products).
Agreed. I fully support nuclear energy, but we don't need more reactors that burn up only a small percentage of the fuel, of which is already only a small percentage of the U mined, of which all ends up being treated as nuclear "waste" for 100,000 years. On top of the mining waste, all of the fuel separation and manufacturing equipment can also be considered waste. It is just criminally inefficient and produces enormous quantities of long lived waste--Just Plain Stupid is an apt description.
Perhaps the most disappointing part of this nuclear disaster, is that it was a perfect opportunity to highlight the progress of current nuclear technology, with passive safety systems, which also solve the waste problem (use it as fuel)--if only we would adopt it!. Even if we cease operation of reactors today, the waste problem won't go away, so the only sensible course of action is to consume it in modern reactors. Incidentally, this would obviate the need for further mining for a century, which in itself is a tremendously environmentally damaging process.
If the media wanted to scare people, they could have done so in a perfectly legitimate and productive way: just call attention to the ancient and JPS reactor designs still in use. Reactors should never, ever be actively "safe"; we need newer designs, not irrational nuclear hysteria. The focus could have been turned from nuclear itself to ill-conceived 1950s era reactors. As with most things, it isn't inherently unsafe, it is a matter of how we use it.
The molten salt reactor looks particularly good, as do things like the travelling wave reactor. The small sealed fast reactors like the Toshiba 4S and Hyperion modules also look good. (Excepting the ones based on LWRs.) I believe that Japan will be fine, as they will continue to look toward the future, and this disaster may even speed the adoption of such technology.