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Old June 1st 06, 03:10 AM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.history,sci.space.station
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Default ...Lesson for Nasa! US Airmail and Aviation

Sander Vesik wrote:

After India builds a dozen - and there are good reasons to think they
will - it will be much less of a problem. Give it a couple of decades.


I seriously doubt this will happen soon. Breeding has very serious
economic problems. Reprocessing is expensive, fabricating fuel
elements containing Pu or 233U is expensive (due to the high
alpha activity, particularly of the latter if it is contaminated
with 232U), and ordinary uranium is still comparatively cheap.

You *might* see thorium used to extend enriched uranium
in once-through fuel cycles, since that avoids reprocessing.

Paul