ABSTRACT
An important and familiar argument states that the world harbors much greater uranium reserves than are known and that a viable nuclear industry can be maintained by burning uranium in light-water reactors indefinitely—without, that is, having to convert to the plutonium-burning fast breeder system. If abundant uranium reserves are not alone a persuasive argument, international guarantees to supply the necessary amounts of enriched uranium fuel are offered to convince the world that it need not pursue the plutonium path. The age of the fast breeder reactor may be far down the road, or it may be just around the corner, and the world may need all the plutonium that can be extracted from the spent fuel of the light-water reactors. The technology of spent-fuel reprocessing is based on complete separation of the residual uranium, the newly created plutonium, and the highly radioactive waste.
