US to offer ‘black box’ nuclear waste tech to other nations
Push comes as Washington struggles to find a solution for its own disposal problem with opposition to permanent dump in Nevada
Washington — The US department of energy’s nuclear security office is developing a project to help other countries handle nuclear waste, an effort to keep the US competitive against global rivals in disposal technology, say two informed sources. The push comes as the US struggles to find a solution for its own mounting nuclear waste inventories amid political opposition to a permanent dump site in Nevada, proposed decades ago, and concern about the cost and security of recycling the waste back into fuel. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is considering helping other countries by using technologies that could involve techniques such as crushing, heating and sending a current through the waste to reduce its volume, the sources said. The machinery would be encased in a “black box” the size of a shipping container and sent to other countries with nuclear energy programs, but be owned and operated by the US , according to the sources, who asked not to be named because o...
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