List of sites for possible nuclear waste recycling facilities scrapped

[jpak]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-argonne-nuke-recycling_both_jul26,0,774313.story

In February of 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy stirred controversy by announcing it was considering recycling nuclear waste and building facilities at Argonne National Laboratory and on a site near Morris to aid in the effort.

Now, the Department of Energy is stepping back, announcing it is not considering any sites for the facilities. The department still is examining the feasibility of reprocessing nuclear waste. "One way of looking at this," department spokesman Brian Quirke said Friday, "is that Argonne used to be on the list. Now the list doesn't exist."

Called the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the program was proposed by President George W. Bush in January 2006. The idea, Bush and supporters said, was to expand the use of nuclear reactors to generate electricity all over the world. Advocates contend the program would offset rising oil and natural gas prices while lowering emissions.

But critics said the program, known as GNEP, would require more storage and shipping of radioactive material, increasing the potential for nuclear mishaps. GNEP also would make it easier for terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons materials, detractors said.

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[bananas]

1. The most important recommendation in MIT's 2003 report "The Future of Nuclear Power"

"Thus our most important recommendation is:
For the next decades, government and industry in the U.S. and elsewhere
should give priority to the deployment of the once-through fuel cycle,
rather than the development of more expensive closed fuel cycle
technology involving reprocessing and new advanced thermal or fast
reactor technologies."

Chapter 1 — The Future of Nuclear Power — Overview and Conclusions
Page 5.
http://web.mit.edu/nuclearpower/


edit to add: GNEP is a scam, Yucca Mountain is a money-pit.