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[10ebbor10]

Don't they get money from importing nuclear waste? Or is that only negligible money?

I have never heard of NK importing Nuclear waste. I doubt they'd be doing that, as international anti-proliferation agreements forbid the selling of nuclear material to potentially dangerous states.

Point is, NK has enough money to buy the ski lifts, but nobody wants to sell them. Recent sanctions forbid the sale of luxury goods.

As for why they don't improvise. Well If a warhead or tank fails, nobody cares. But this would be a tourist center for SK tourists. A single death could close the entire thing, as happened with the previous attempt.

[LordSlowpoke]

all things considered letting the north koreans import nuclear waste is silly

i mean usually spent fuel rods are 90% usable uranium hence i demand sources before i believe this ever happened

[10ebbor10]

Actually, it's 95% useable uranium, 3% waste, 1% not useable uranium, and 1% weapons grade plutonium*.

[LordSlowpoke]

...all the even sillier to let them import it then

by the way why does nobody properly recycle the stuff. i think the only countries that even have a nuclear recycling system are japan and france, and both get rid of the stuff after the first cycle

unprofitable or what?

[10ebbor10]

Actually, almost all nations recycle their spent fuel. There are a few exceptions. The US stopped reprocessing under public pressure, because they feared it would increase proliferation. IIRC, Sweden used to export it's waste to Russia for reprocessing, but that became an environmental disaster, and so they stopped doing it. Germany stopped because they shut down their reactors. No point in creating fuel you're not using.

Japan, India, China, UK, France, Belgium and Russia have active reprocessing facilities.

[Descan]

At what point do they stop? What percentage of "usable uranium" from the original fuel do they stop? Or how many passed through a nuclear reactor?

[10ebbor10]

At what point do they stop? What percentage of "usable uranium" from the original fuel do they stop? Or how many passed through a nuclear reactor?

They don't. Uranium fuel is 95% U238, 5%U235. You put it into the reactor, get it out of the reactor, reprocess, add some new uranium and put it back in.

It's one of the primary reasons why Uranium fuels are technically unlimited.

[Descan]

Right, that's actually fairly obvious...

I guess I'm asking, how many passes can the average amount take? I'm guessing 20 passes, from those percentages.

[Darvi]

Infinite, because anytime some of it is used up, it gets replaced with fresh fuel. It's Locke's socks all over again really.

[Descan]

I'm pretty sure you misunderstood me a few degrees there, Darvi.

[IronyOwl]

I think that depends on what you mean by a "pass." I'd think the rate of use depends on the reactor, though I could be wrong.

"How much energy does every [UNIT] of fuel degrading itself provide?" might be a better question, though one I sadly don't know the answer to.

[freeformschooler]

If Greater Leader III Cannot Ski, Lifts Must be Freed from Western Tyranny

[miauw62]

Picture Gallery of a tourist in Best Korea.
(Links to part 1 and 2 in the comments)

Pretty interesting.

[10ebbor10]

I think that depends on what you mean by a "pass." I'd think the rate of use depends on the reactor, though I could be wrong.

"How much energy does every [UNIT] of fuel degrading itself provide?" might be a better question, though one I sadly don't know the answer to.

The answer. Though it doesn't include the fact that a common Second Gen power plant has an efficiency of approximately 30%, maybe lower.

[Owlbread]

Spoiler: Modern video games? (click to show/hide)

That looks like an NES to me...