Wen Observer Network Qi Qian

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in the United States is not enough electricity.

US President Donald Trump has come up with a plan: to convert plutonium from Cold War-era nuclear warheads into nuclear power fuel.

According to Reuters, sources informed on August 22 that the Trump administration plans to dismantle about 20 tons of uranium from the Cold War nuclear warhead and provide it to U.S. power companies as a potential fuel for nuclear reactors.

There are U.S. nuclear physics experts who point out that the U.S. government has previously attempted similar efforts but ended up failing; and that excess uranium is ¡°very dangerous¡± and the idea of trying to turn it into reactor fuel ¡°is crazy.¡±

Plutonium data map

According to the source, along with a draft memorandum outlining the plan, the move was implemented under an executive order signed by Trump in May that required the government to suspend most of the existing uranium dilution and disposal programs instead of using it as fuel for advanced nuclear technology.

The anonymous said the U.S. Department of Energy plans to announce in the coming days that it will seek advice from the industry on the matter.At the same time, as the plan is still in the draft phase, the final details may change as further discussions take place.

The draft memorandum indicates that the Trump administration will supply uranium to in a very low or free manner, but with one condition: the industry must bear the cost of transporting, designing, building, decommissioning and recycling related facilities, as well as processing and manufacturing fuel facilities.

Details about the amount of plutonium, the industry's responsibility in the program, and the timing of a possible U.S. announcement have not been reported.

In 2000, the United States signed a non-proliferation agreement with Russia, which pledged to dispose of 34 tons of arms-grade uranium, and about 20 tons of uranium mentioned in the report would be extracted from the stockpile.

The U.S. Department of Energy did not confirm or deny the content of the report, but only responded that according to Trump's order, the department was "evaluating various strategies to establish and strengthen the domestic nuclear fuel supply chain, including plutonium".

Recently, the rise of AI has led to a surge in U.S. electricity consumption, and U.S. electricity demand has risen for the first time in twenty years. The Trump administration will boost U.S. electricity industry as a policy priority and has been trying to ease energy and environmental regulations. In April this year, Trump signed an executive order aimed at increasing coal production.

But Reuters noted that Trump¡¯s idea of using uranium as fuel has raised concerns among nuclear security experts.

Experts point out that the U.S. government has attempted similar efforts but ended in failure.According to the US-Russia 2000 agreement, the uranium plan was converted to hybrid oxide fuel (MOX) for nuclear power plants.But in 2018, the Trump administration terminated the project, saying its cost would exceed $50 billion.

Nuclear waste storage facility in Savannah River, South Carolina

Plutonium is a radioactive transuranic element with a half-life of 24,000 years and requires the use of protective equipment.

According to reports, the U.S. Department of Energy stores surplus plutonium in high-alert weapons facilities such as the Savannah River in South Carolina, Pantex, Texas, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Before Trump signed the executive order in May, the plutonium disposal plan in the United States involved mixing it with inert materials and storing it at an experimental underground storage site in New Mexico, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that burying the plutonium will cost $20 billion.

"Trying to turn this material into reactor fuel is insane," said Edwin Lehmann, a US nuclear physicist and member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, founded in 1969 on the initiative of professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now 100,000 scientists around the world. "This is the equivalent of trying to restart the disastrous MOX fuel programme and hoping for a different outcome."

"Excess plutonium is dangerous waste, and the U.S. Department of Energy should adhere to a safer, more reliable and much less costly plan to dilute it in WIPP and dispose of it directly," Lehmann warned.

Source | Observer.com

Further reading

According to a report by Agence France-Presse and Reuters on the 22nd, the US government ordered the same day to stop all construction work on a large wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, which is currently 80% complete.

Reported by Reuters.

The project, called "Revolutionary Wind Power", is being built by Danish renewable energy company Orsted, which started construction of the project last year after obtaining all necessary permits. The project invested US $1.5 billion and aims to power more than 350,000 households in Rhode Island.

But on the 22nd of this month, Matthew Giacona, acting director of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), sent a letter asking the project to "cease all ongoing activities" to allow time for a review.

"In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of U.S. national security interests. You may not resume activities until BOEM has completed its review," the letter said, without elaborating on what the "national security interests concerns" were.

In a statement, Orsted said it was "evaluating all options to resolve the matter quickly", including "possible legal proceedings". According to the company, the wind farm is 80% complete, with 45 wind turbines already installed (65 planned) and hopes to complete the project by the end of next year.

AFP said the incident was the latest in a series of orders by the Trump administration to block climate-friendly wind power. Trump said on Thursday that "wind power will not work." Since Trump entered the White House in January this year, the entire U.S. wind power industry has faced major challenges. Trump has frozen federal licenses and loans for all offshore and onshore wind power projects.