# What's the problem with nuclear?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-problem-with-nuclear/137093>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 17, 2002, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-problem-with-nuclear/137093 "2002-11-17T00:07:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-problem-with-nuclear/137093/61 "2003-04-15T05:28:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ralph124c \*  
> **One possibility for using nuclear waste: put it into a breeder reator, and turn it back into nuclear fule! This can be done with today’s technology.**

How efficiently? I’m sure some of the waste products of a conventional reactor (and maybe even some of the waste products of a CANDU reactor) can be refined and put back through a breeder reactor, but (A) it sounds like it’d take more energy to do the refinement than you’d squeeze out of the recycled waste, and (B) what about the radioactive portion of the waste that can’t be recycled?

By the way, have I mentioned that I like the idea of putting our waste-grade uranium and plutonium in CANDU reactors?

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