Reprocessing in East Asia: The Economic Case

In view of the proliferation and terrorism concerns raised by stockpiling and use of plutonium in nuclear power programs, countries reprocessing and using mixed oxide fuel should able to demonstrate benefits that are sufficiently compelling to compensate for these risks. In this paper, John Carlson observes that the benefits of reprocessing and using MOX fuel are questionable. The costs are so high that it is difficult to see how they can be justified relative to alternative approaches for spent fuel management, such as direct disposal or long-term storage pending further research on the viability of new recycling technologies.

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