News Political Parallels After last year’s election, a new crowd took over in Washington, D.C., and one of the first signals the nuclear lobby saw was how smoothly Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) killed Yucca Mountain. Clarion Energy Content Directors 12.1.2009 Share By Dr. A. David Rossin After last year’s election, a new crowd took over in Washington, D.C., and one of the first signals the nuclear lobby saw was how smoothly Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) killed Yucca Mountain. Frankly, it was hard to figure how a program that Congress had supported and utility customers had generously funded for three decades could be turned around without lengthy debate and negotiations. But it sure happened! Industry reps in Washington heard a number of stories about newly elected senators and even congressmen who visited the new majority leader. Asked about their goals and interests, Sen. Reid let it be known that he didn’t want much in return, but that he would be pleased if they did not interfere with Nevada business as he shut down the Yucca Mountain Project. As new nuclear power plant licensing applications reach public hearing stages, groups are there to challenge how a nuclear plant can be allowed to be built “when they don’t even know how to dispose of their waste.” We’ve obviously known for a long time how to dispose of nuclear waste and on three occasions the Atomic Energy Commission or Nuclear Regulator Commission (NRC) conducted an extensive Waste Confidence Hearing that found that indeed, the required confidence was in hand. But now, say the intervenors, even if a technical case is offered, it collapses under the fact that people don’t want it and can stop it, even in a state where more than 100 nuclear explosions took place in the same rocky soil in which magnificently engineered canisters will seal radioactive waste forever or at least for 10,000 years. Philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” His target is decision-makers who have not done their history homework. Decisions for the Yucca Mountain repository parallel the political history of the 1970s, when President Jimmy Carter became convinced that we could prevent proliferation. President Carter announced his “comprehensive strategy” in 1977, during his first 100 days in office, catching the nuclear world almost completely by surprise. At the time, our first large commercial reprocessing plant in Barnwell, S.C., was ready for testing with cold uranium and an important new licensing hurdle lay ahead: a generic environmental statement on reprocessing spent fuel and recycling the plutonium. The hearing board had been appointed and was laying out its hearing schedule for yet another acronym: “GESMO,” the Generic Environmental Statement on Mixed Oxide Fuels. The Carter White House made it clear that they had no intention of letting GESMO run on and on. Astonished nuclear energy people watched from the sidelines as hopes for new plant orders waned. As with Sen. Reid and Yucca Mountain, that ship had sailed. France, Britain and Japan went ahead with their fuel cycle work despite U. S. pressure. And historians will try to find evidence that Carter’s strategy had any impact on proliferation. More than 30 years ago, Carter labeled nuclear power “the energy source of last resort.” Today, the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), an international program for research and development of new designs and fuel cycles, has had its funding cut and the remains of GNEP is told that the mere existence of separated plutonium, such as in Areva’s La Hague reprocessing plant in France, is unacceptable because it might become a proliferation risk. No nuclear plant ordered after 1973 was ever completed. Today, new plants to be built with designs already certified for safety on previously approved sites face extended NRC hearings. Happily, there is one bit of good news that might improve nuclear energy’s future. The White House announced two experienced candidates to fill empty seats on the NRC. George Apostolakis is a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a fellow of the American Nuclear Society, and William Magwood served under former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as director of nuclear energy with the Department of Energy. This is an important step and it is long overdue. Author: Dr. A. David Rossin has worked with trade associations, companies, national laboratories and universities on nuclear and advanced energy technology, non-proliferation, radioactive waste management and low-level radiation issues. Dr. Rossin served as president of the American Nuclear Society from 1992-93 and as U. S. DOE assistant secretary for nuclear energy from 1986-1987. He was the director of the Nuclear Safety Analysis Center at EPRI from 1981 to 1986. Since 1996, Dr. Rossin has been a Center Affiliated Scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, where he is researching and writing a book on the U. S. policy decision in 1977 to abandon reprocessing spent nuclear reactor fuel. More Nuclear Power International Issue Articles Nuclear Power International Issue Archives View Power Generation Articles on PennEnergy.com Related Articles Babcock & Wilcox receives $246 million contract for coal-to-gas project Michigan regulators reject Consumers Energy proposal to exit biomass plant PPAs early Navigating the transition: Insights from Siemens Energy North America President Rich Voorberg Hydropower investment opportunities in U.S. remain untapped, per NREL report
