Is it a myth that France has a successful nuclear industry?

[Morbius]

France also has a much smaller waste volume than the US because it reprocesses waste as MOX fuel, the US for various reasons doesn't allow reprocessing.

mgb_phys,

EXACTLY! One gets a LARGE reduction in the volume of the waste since spent nuclear fuel
is basically 96% U-238 that is no more radioactive than the day it was dug out of the ground.

The radioactive species are the fission products [ Strontium-90, Cesium-137 ] and the
capture products [ Plutonium-239, Plutonium-240, and other actinides ]. However, the fission products
and capture products constitute only a few percent of the spent fuel.

The reason the US doesn't reprocess is due to successful efforts by the anti-nukes with backing by
the Congress and various Administrations to oppose reprocessing. The whole strategy of the anti-nukes
is to DISALLOW reprocessing so that waste volume is maximized. The only allowed disposition for
spent fuel is geologic burial - and then the anti-nukes oppose the disposal site at Yucca Mountain.

The whole idea is to "constipate" the nuclear fuel cycle. The anti-nukes hope that if spent fuel can not
be reprocessed or disposed of - in fact can not even be transported from the reactor site - then sooner
or later the reactor operator will have no place to put additional waste and will not be able to discharge
and refuel the reactor. The reactor would have to shutdown - which is the goal of the anti-nukes.

Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist