DOE reconsiders use of nuclear recycling

[jpak]

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/727283,4_1_JO05_NUCLEAR_S1.article

The U.S. Department of Energy is taking a step back in its effort to sell recycling spent nuclear fuel rods to the public and is now focusing on whether this process should be done in the country at all.

In February, the DOE announced a proposal to design, build and operate three facilities: an advanced fuel cycle research facility (laboratory), a nuclear fuel recycling center and an advanced recycling reactor, which would destroy long-lived radioactive elements in the new fuel, while generating electricity. The facilities would recover about 95 percent of the energy available in spent nuclear fuel and reduce radioactive half-lives.

Since then, the DOE was supposed to be researching the environmental impact of the 13 possible sites for this technology, which includes General Electric Co. in Morris. The decision was supposed to be made by this summer, but in October the DOE announced this would be delayed. And now the DOE has changed the plan.

"We're changing direction," said Brian Quirke of the DOE. "We're no longer looking at the environmental impact of the sites for the recycling (center) and reactor. What we are doing is looking at the larger public policy question of whether we should be recycling spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants."

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[phantom power]

1. I guess we'll learn more next summer...