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by tremon 44 days ago
Waste management has always been a purely political problem, since breeder reactor designs have existed as long as enriched uranium fission reactors. Most of the waste of breeder reactors is radioactively inert; the problem is that mining uranium is profitable in itself, and it probably shouldn't be.
1 comments

My understanding has been that an additional reason breeder reactors have been discouraged is due to nuclear proliferation fears; the neccessary reprocessing of the fuel also produces weapons-grade plutonium.
proliferation argument doesn't hold considering you can do it much cheaper with distributed enrichment of uranium. Breeders can open a pathway for plutonium warheads but it's more about optimization. If a country wants such warheads, it'll start with easy enrichment path