A major reason the U.S. hasn't gotten back into the nuclear energy game is the problem of what to do with the radioactive waste. The French have tackled this problem by recycling the spent rods. High grade plutonium, that could be used in the making of bombs, is a byproduct of this recycling.
In an interview on ''60 Minutes" last night, the Deputy Secretary of Energy stated that recycling the waste is the way to go, however our approach is that we should do it in a way that does not result in separated plutonium. This seemingly cautious policy is delaying the growth of nuclear energy in this country. By all accounts we are decades away from recycling with this separation technology.
To re-cap—The French have cheap, clean energy, they are able to export. They have found a way to recycle the waste. They have been successful for many years and are confident their security can control the plutonium byproduct. We on the other hand have been pursuing a strategy of temporarily storing nuclear waste under a mountain. This method has now been proven to be insufficient and costly. It has however insured our dependency on fossil fuels as a major source of energy for many years to come.
Our concern with the safety of the plutonium as a byproduct has prevented our nuclear energy capability from expanding for many years. Is French security better than ours? You would think that we would be better equipped than the French, or any other country, to safeguard the plutonium from falling into the wrong hands. It is hard to miss the giant footprint of the the oil industry all over our nuclear energy program, just as it has been over our foreign policy for years.