Clean energy plans for the US and other large industrial nations continue to involve nuclear energy. The light water reactors use a mix of U-238 and about 5% fissile U-235 to start the reaction and end up with a mix of U-238 and nuclear waste, including plutonium (Pu-239). The process of radioactive decay, slow and fast neutrons, and neutron capture, result in the release of energy as well as the transmutation of elements, like turning U-238 into Pu-239.
One topic the author discusses is whether to use the plutonium for other power reactors (p. 170), for nuclear weapons, or whether it should be collected with nuclear waste and vitrified, and then stored in a geological formation. In other words, "Some of the plutonium can be 'burned,' that is, used up in power reactors. One promising idea involves using what is known as MOX, which stands for mixed oxides." (p. 170).
On the technical level, there is a difference between "reactor plutonium" and "weapons plutonium", but normal light water reactors produce both forms in various amounts, Pu-240 and Pu-239 (p. 116-117).
In the 2020s countries are looking for sustainable energy and considering updating the aging fleet of nuclear reactors. Yet the general public keeps the nuclear energy topic in one mental category, when in fact there are a wide variety of choices of reactor design and, more particularly, of the fuels, moderators, and coolants.
Since plutonium is a key part of the fuel cycle, there ought to be a a closer look at its different uses, along with an examination its extreme risks and toxicity.
In some of the US nuclear weapons sites in the West clean up has been expensive, close to $10 billion (p.164). However, collecting and burning the plutonium in MOX reactors may, in a time of high energy demands, be the better route and worth the higher financial cost.
The production of plutonium is inextricably linked with nuclear power. There is little public consensus over whether to collect plutonium and radioactive wastes, vitrify it, and there store it underground, or whether to mix plutonium with nuclear fuels and use it in new reactors. Even though people in the rich world have great concerns over nuclear waste, or the by-products of reactor operations, plutonium is going to be a big part of our nuclear energy future. The world needs to develop better ways to track, control, and use this material.
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