US to pursue reprocessing even if partnership fails: official

Washington (Platts)--20Oct2006

US Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said the
Department of Energy's pursuit of nuclear fuel reprocessing will include an
"off-ramp" in the event there is not sufficient progress on an advanced
nuclear fuel or a nuclear reactor.

In an interview with Platts Thursday, Spurgeon said that even if DOE
officials decide not to pursue the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership in its
current form, the agency will continue to pursue the program's key
goals--closing the fuel cycle, developing proliferation resistant nuclear
materials and limiting the amount of waste that would go into a permanent
repository.

DOE has said it will proceed with GNEP on two tracks. On the first track,
it would build a reprocessing facility with industry help using available
technology. On the second, it would develop a reprocessing plant based on as
yet undeveloped technology that would ultimately produce
proliferation-resistant fuels for an advanced fast reactor. As a result the
volume and toxicity of nuclear waste would be substantiallly lower.

"Anybody has contingency plans and that's just what it is, is an off
ramp," Spurgeon said. "This program doesn't fall on its face if the recycling
plant is ready before" the advanced reactor. He said the off ramp would
involve using fuel from a recycling facility in existing light-water
reactors while researchers develop more advanced separation technologies,
fuels and reactors.

He said, however, that DOE's "plan is not to produce fuel for a light
reactor, our...fuel is designed to be fed into a fast reactor."

DOE has said it will decide whether to proceed with the
multibillion-dollar GNEP project in 2008. The program, which also is supposed
to bring in foreign partners to prevent nuclear proliferation worldwide, has
received no appropriation from Congress, and has been met by skepticism from
Office of Management and Budget officials, sources said.

Of the battles over funding, an administration source GNEP is a
presidential priority that Bush has mentioned recently in speeches and
interviews, and that in the end the project would likely get funded.

The source said Spurgeon and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman met Thursday
with Allan Hubbard, the director of the National Economic Council, and Stephen
Hadley and Jack Crouch, both deputy national security advisors to Bush to
discuss how to advance GNEP.

--Daniel Whitten, daniel_whitten@platts.com

For more news, request a free trial to Platts Inside Energy at
http://insideenergy.platts.com or subscribe now at
http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=23_33&products_id=61

 

Copyright © 2005 - Platts

Please visit:  www.platts.com

Their coverage of energy matters is extensive!!.