[ RadSafe ] " Gawarecki on the nuclear future "

[Jaro]

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/munger/2008/12/gawarecki_on_the_nuclear_futur.
html
Gawarecki on the nuclear future

Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight Committee in Oak
Ridge, said she just got back from an interngovernmental meeting where folks
were concerned that if Yucca Mountain opened tomorrow its capacity would be
taken up by the backlog of commercial spent fuel and/or DOE high-level
waste.

She offered some comments on the nuclear future in advance of tonight's GNEP
meeting:

"I think that reprocessing is essential to close the fuel cycle," Gawarecki
said. "Of course, siting is going to be really problematic because nobody
wants that in their community . . . I can't say wehterh it'd be a good fit
for Oak Ridge. I think we have the technology and expertise, but I don't
think we have a very good climate for it. I think we're too wet and too much
potential for contamination if there were a problem."

She said she didn't think on-site storage at power stations was a long-term
solution.

"If we're going to have a robust nuclear industry, then completing the fuel
cycle is appropriate," Gawarecki said.

She said today's technologies for reprocessing spent fuel are not as dirty
as ones in the past. "I think there's been a lot of technology development .
. . Every method of generating electricity has an environmental impact.
Sometimes it's the amount of acreage used. Sometimes it's dealing with a
hazardous material . . . There are tradeoffs for every method."


Posted by Frank Munger on December 2, 2008 at 12:25 PM