Tämän laitoksen historiasta kertovasta Wikipedia-artikkelista löytyy kaksi selitystä sille, miten hyötöreaktorin kehitys USA:ssa jumiutui:
Clinch River Breeder Reactor ProjectThe Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project was a nuclear reactor project that aimed to build the USA's first large-scale demonstration breeder reactor plant.[2] It was led by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (and a successor agency, the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), and subsequently the U.S. Department of Energy). The project was opposed by President Carter.[3]
Hinta:
Another issue was the high cost of building and operating breeder reactors to produce electricity. In 1981, it was estimated that construction costs for a fast breeder reactor would be twice the cost of building a conventional light-water nuclear reactor of similar capacity. That same year it was estimated that the market price of mined, processed uranium, then $25 per pound, would have to increase to nearly $165 per pound in 1981 dollars before the breeder would become financially competitive with the conventional light-water nuclear reactor. United States electric utility companies were reluctant to invest in such an expensive technology.[10]
Mutta myös pelko tästä:
Nuclear weapons proliferation
Concerns about potential nuclear weapons proliferation were another serious issue for the commercial breeder reactor program, because this technology produces plutonium that potentially could be used to make nuclear weapons. Because of international concern about proliferation, in April 1977 President Jimmy Carter called for an indefinite deferral of construction of commercial breeder reactors.[10]
Pelättiin siis varkaita. USA itse tietysti sai tarpeellliseksi katsomansa määrän plutoniumia muilla tavoin.
Mutta merkitään, että luopuminen tapahtui jo Carterin aikana ja toimesta. Olen edellä (virheellisesti) syyttänyt asiasta Bill Clintonia.
Mutta edellä on vahvoja vinkkejä siitä, että kumpaisessakin kysymyksessä on asiaa nyttemmin mietitty (ja laskettu) uudelleen.
