William Tucker (WSJ FEB. 28, 2010 PAGE A15) is "RIGHT ON" except that he stopped short.
He properly described that the revival of the outdated arguments of the "anti-nucs" has
been refuted, but he omitted the much more important next phase which is now receiving timely International attention.

The world hasn't even begun to use "real nuclear power". A pound of uranium contains
the energy equivalent of 5000 barrels of oil (at $75 a barrel that is equivalent to $375,000 worth of    energy per pound. At the present, time the world is extracting about 1% of it, BUT we know
what we must do to extract the rest of it. The discoverers of nuclear power, Enrico Fermi and
his colleagues told the world it would be necessary to recycle uranium in a fast neutron reactor
(about 60 years ago). The U.S. listened and responded.

Nuclear News, February, 1977

The author presses for an expeditious development of fuel cycle technology, especially with respect to reprocessing and the recovery of a precious energy resource, plutonium. The present U.S. posture concerning reprocessing is seriously questioned.

Plutonium is an energy resource

Plutonium has become a household word, but all too often those discussing it lose sight of its primary attribute: as an energy resource. It is, in fact, the most abundant energy resource on Earth that we have the technical and productive capability to use now. Since a pound of plutonium is equivalent to more than 5000 barrels of oil, and since we have "known reserves" of plutonium (uranium-238 convertible into plutonium) of about 250,000 tons already mined, simple arithmetic reveals that this energy resource is virtually inexhaustible. We already have the equivalent of some 2.5 trillion barrels of oil "in storage." Therefore, availability or depletion of this energy resource is not a concern. There are other concerns, however, and these will be discussed, but primarily within the perspective of plutonium as an energy resource.