News

Tri Cities to Have GNEP Hearing

November 15, 2008 

McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Annette Cary Tri-City Herald,
Kennewick, Wash.

Tri-City residents will get something Monday that some Seattle and
Portland residents are clamoring for -- a public hearing on the Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership.

Last month the Department of Energy released a new draft environmental
study on the partnership that favored reprocessing fuel that has been used
in nuclear power plants rather than using it only once.

DOE has scheduled 13 public hearings on the study around the country,
but just two in the Northwest. One is at 7 p.m. Monday in the Pasco Red Lion
Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave. and the other is in Hood River, Ore., the next
evening at the Hood River Inn, 1108 E. Marina Way.

The state of Oregon has requested that another meeting be added in
Portland. And Heart of America Northwest has called for more meetings in
Seattle and Spokane.

But with no additional meetings planned, opponents of reprocessing
nuclear waste are offering free rides from Portland to the Hood River
meeting on a biodiesel bus.

The draft study, or programmatic environmental impact statement,
looked at alternatives to the practice of using nuclear fuel once and then
sending it to a deep geological repository, such as Yucca Mountain, Nev.

The study did not pick one option as preferred, saying only that DOE
preferred to close the fuel cycle, or reuse fuel.

The study also did not narrow sites for researching or reprocessing
fuel, but did include information about areas, including Hanford, that might
be appropriate for nuclear projects.

The study looks at ways to support the expansion of nuclear energy
production, while reducing the risks of nuclear proliferation and the
impacts of disposing of nuclear fuel in geologic repositories.

It assessed alternatives that the study said could reduce the amount
or change the characteristics of used fuel and radioactive wastes requiring
disposal in the future.

Opponents of reuse are concerned that reprocessing would generate its
own waste.

The report is posted at www.gnep.energy.gov.