GE enriches Uranium... WITH LASERS!

[frigidmagi]

NYTimes

[quote]Scientists have long sought easier ways to make the costly material known as enriched uranium — the fuel of nuclear reactors and bombs, now produced only in giant industrial plants.

One idea, a half-century old, has been to do it with nothing more substantial than lasers and their rays of concentrated light. This futuristic approach has always proved too expensive and difficult for anything but laboratory experimentation.

Until now.

In a little-known effort, General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking federal permission to build a $1 billion plant that would make reactor fuel by the ton.

That might be good news for the nuclear industry. But critics fear that if the work succeeds and the secret gets out, rogue states and terrorists could make bomb fuel in much smaller plants that are difficult to detect.

Iran has already succeeded with laser enrichment in the lab, and nuclear experts worry that G.E.’s accomplishment might inspire Tehran to build a plant easily hidden from the world’s eyes.

Backers of the laser plan call those fears unwarranted and praise the technology as a windfall for a world increasingly leery of fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases.

But critics want a detailed risk assessment. Recently, they petitioned Washington for a formal evaluation of whether the laser initiative could backfire and speed the global spread of nuclear arms.

“We’re on the verge of a new route to the bomb,â€

[Soontir948]

So they are worried that building the facility will will spur other nations to continue their research into laser enrichment, but the very fact that GE and co found an economic way of doing it and are willing to build it will probably spur them anyway.

Only thing we're doing is holding ourselves back.

[Destructionator XV]

I'm not particularly afraid of nuclear proliferation at all. There's a lot of countries with nuclear weapons right now, and so far, the world has a pretty good record of responsibility with them.

If Iran joins the club, it really doesn't strike me as that big of a deal. The domestic benefits, on the other hand, are pretty nice and more of a sure thing.

[The Cleric]

Do it. The faster we can transition to fission, then fusion, the better off we are. Energy availability is going to be a big deal in the near future.