[NukeNet] Alert: Tell DOE what you think of radwaste reprocessing!

[Michael Mariotte]

Tell the Energy Department That You Oppose Reprocessing Radioactive
Waste!

 

Dear Friend:

 

Below is an Alert from our friends at Public Citizen. The GNEP public
comment process is underway with public meetings and the opportunity to
comment to DOE. You can get a list of the meetings, find out more about
GNEP, and e-mail your comments directly to DOE from this website:
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/n
ukewaste/reprocessing/articles.cfm?ID=16102 

 

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

 

Announced by the Bush Administration in February 2006, the Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) is a sweeping proposal to restart
nuclear waste reprocessing in the United States.
Reprocessing-incorrectly called "recycling" by the Energy Department-is
expensive and polluting, and poses a serious risk to U.S. national
security and global efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. 

 

The Energy Department, which is responsible for implementing GNEP, is
required to request comments from the public about what issues should be
part of its analysis of the program. Use the sample letter below to tell
the Energy Department why it should abandon the dangerous and polluting
GNEP program.

 

DOE is holding public meetings in or near the 11 sites that are
potential candidates for the siting of GNEP facilities, which include:

*        indefinite spent fuel storage at the site,

*        a reprocessing plant <link to
http://www.citizen.org/documents/reprocessingfactsheet.pdf >, and

*        a fast reactor <link to
http://www.citizen.org/documents/FastReactors.pdf >. 

 

If you live near one of these sites, attend the meeting and tell the
Energy Department in person that you do not want radioactive waste
transported into your community.

 

For the list of candidate sites and public meetings, click here <link to
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_power_plants/n
ukewaste/reprocessing/articles.cfm?ID=16102 >.

 

 

Sample Letter:

 

Re: GNEP PEIS Comments

 

Dear Timothy A. Frazier,

 

The Department of Energy's proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership
(GNEP), a program to restart nuclear waste reprocessing in the United
States, poses a threat to local communities and to global security.
Instead of pursuing the dangerous and expensive GNEP program, DOE should
store nuclear waste at reactor sites and safeguard it from terrorist
attack. 

 

DOE's proposed scope and environmental issues of its Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) is woefully inadequate. A PEIS
analysis requires that DOE consider the full GNEP proposal, which
includes importing foreign fuel to the United States, not just the three
facilities that DOE is proposing to build now. 

 

In particular, DOE must describe how it is to going to manage and
protect the public and workers from the many radioactive and hazardous
waste streams that result from reprocessing. Just some of these waste
streams include strontium, cesium, radioactive lanthanides, technetium,
uranium, and krypton gas. DOE must also consider all of the
environmental, safety, and security impacts from the transportation and
indefinite storage of U.S. and foreign spent nuclear fuel and
reprocessing waste at all of the possible reprocessing plants and fast
reactors required to implement the full GNEP program.  

 

DOE must analyze the total lifecycle cost of GNEP, including all of the
reprocessing facilities, fast reactors and fuel fabrication facilities
required to fully implement GNEP. This analysis must include clean-up of
the reprocessing facilities, as well as decommissioning of fast reactors
and fuel fabrication facilities.  

 

DOE must also analyze the impacts of GNEP on U.S. and global security.
Reprocessing will increase the amount of bomb-usable material that could
be stolen by terrorists or diverted by nations for nuclear weapons.
Reprocessed plutonium is much easier to steal compared to plutonium that
is kept in highly radioactive spent fuel. In addition, the dissemination
of technical experts and specialized equipment could lead to the spread
of weapons programs in countries that currently do not have nuclear
weapons.

 

Reprocessing is polluting and expensive, and a threat to U.S. national
security.  DOE should abandon the dangerous GNEP proposal and focus
instead on safeguarding nuclear waste at reactor sites. 

 

Sincerely,

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