Interesting tidbit in this report :
"accelerator-driven technologies... have proven to be unrealistic in terms of cost....[thus leading to] a transition to reactor-based technologies.... the department's fuel cycle research effort would look very different a year from now."
....which sounds like they might suddenly need the FFTF reactor just after its decommissioned, huh ?
Quick -- build a replacement !
Brilliant !
Jaro
NUCLEONICS WEEK - June 6, 2002
DOE NOMINEE SAYS FUEL CYCLE WORK
SHIFTING TO CHEAPER REACTOR OPTION
DOE is moving away from accelerator-driven technologies
and toward less costly reactor-based ones for advanced
fuel cycle work, DOE deputy secretary designate Kyle Mc-Slarrow
said this week.
McSlarrow's comment came during his confirmation
hearing June 4 after Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) said he did
not think DOE had sufficient funding to carry out a recent
U.S.-Russian collaborative research agreement on advanced
fuel cycle technologies. Presidents George W. Bush and
Vladimir Putin signed an agreement last month that, in part,
set up a working group to recommend how such research
could be used to reduce stocks of plutonium and high-enriched uranium.
"Reprocessing, transmutation, and recycling have been
bound up in the past by a look at some technologies, particularly
accelerator-driven technologies, that have proven to be
unrealistic in terms of cost," said McSlarrow, who now is
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's chief of staff. He added
that DOE is in the midst of a transition to reactor-based technologies
and that he believed the department's fuel cycle
research effort would look very different a year from now.
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who has championed accelerator
research, was in New Mexico Tuesday. However, an
aide, Pete Lyons, later said Domenici strongly supports broad
fuel cycle research that looks at both accelerator- and reactor-based options.
On other issues, McSlarrow said DOE would be looking
for ways to make the country's electrical grids more secure as
part of the department's homeland security program. The grid
at DOE's Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory
would be perfect for such work, he said. The lab has a
closed transmission system.
McSlarrow, a former Senate staffer, sailed through the
confirmation hearing. The Energy & Natural Resources Committee
was scheduled to act on his nomination during its business
meeting yesterday (June 5).-Elaine Hiruo, Washington