request in 2007 budget to include reprocessing of nuclear waste
The Bush administration is requesting a FY2007 budget of
$250 million to begin development of a major new nuclear
energy initiative, called the Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership (GNEP), which involves the “reprocessing” of
the used (or “spent”) fuel from nuclear power reactors.
The separated plutonium can be used to fuel reactors, but
also to make nuclear weapons. Nearly three decades ago,
the United States decided on non-proliferation grounds not
to reprocess spent fuel from U.S. power reactors, but
instead to directly dispose of it in a deep underground
geologic repository where it would remain isolated from
the environment for at least tens of thousands of years.
While some supporters of a U.S. reprocessing program
believe it would help solve the nuclear waste problem,
reprocessing would not reduce the need for storage and
disposal of radioactive waste. Worse, reprocessing would
make it easier for terrorists to acquire nuclear weapons
materials, and for nations to develop nuclear weapons
programs.
Reprocessing would increase the risk of nuclear terrorism.
Less than 20 pounds of plutonium is needed to make a
nuclear weapon. If the plutonium remains bound in large,
heavy, and highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies, it is
nearly impossible to steal. In contrast, separated
plutonium is not highly radioactive and is stored in a
concentrated powder form. Some claim that new reprocessing
technologies that would leave the plutonium blended with
other elements, such as neptunium, would result in a
plutonium mixture that would be too radioactive to steal.
This is incorrect; neither neptunium nor the other
elements under consideration are radioactive enough to
deter or preclude theft.
