Recycle nuclear fuel
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As utilities gear up to build a new generation of nuclear power plants, there is broad consensus among experts that the nuclear waste problem should and can be resolved. One way to simplify the problem is to recycle used fuel from nuclear power plants. This approach has had success in other countries.
Though the technology for recycling was developed in the United States, President Jimmy Carter banned it in the mid-1970s on grounds that it could lead to nuclear weapons proliferation. France and other countries -- such as Great Britain, Japan and Russia -- never followed the U.S. lead and continued to recycle used nuclear fuel. Based on many years of experience in different countries, it is clear the process is safe, and it never has led to the loss or theft of nuclear materials that could be used for weapons.
Recycling, also known as reprocessing, reduces by over 50 percent the amount of high-level radioactive waste that must be stored in a deep-geologic repository. If a repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada were eventually built, as Congress intended, recycling would allow it to store more than double the amount of high-level waste.
Another new factor is South Carolina's interest in hosting a recycling plant. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, both Republicans who favor nuclear power, said recently they would support locating such a facility at the Savannah River nuclear weapons site in South Carolina. They emphasized, however, that construction of the Yucca Mountain repository was a prerequisite.
Polls show that Americans support an expansion of nuclear power, and for good reason -- it is the single most important source of electricity that does not contribute to global warming or to air pollution. More nuclear plants are needed to provide electricity for economic growth, while avoiding the emission of greenhouse gases and reducing our nation's dependence on Middle East oil.
First Published February 23, 2011 12:00 am
