Bush Administration Delays Decision on Risky Nuclear Energy Program
The Bush administration had planned to publish a "record of decision" next month on whether and how to proceed with the proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program, its ill-advised plan to reprocess spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. UCS strongly opposes the GNEP plan because reprocessing separates plutonium from other nuclear waste contained in spent nuclear fuel; once separated, the plutonium can be used to fuel reactors or to make nuclear weapons.
Fortunately, thanks in part to our work, Congress has provided significantly less funding for the program than the administration has requested. As a result of lower funding and the many flaws and changes in the DOE's own plans, last month the administration announced that the record of decision would merely be a recommendation for the next administration. Therefore, construction on the proposed large-scale reprocessing facility and the new, unproven nuclear reactor design will not begin.
