Nuclear Waste: Intelligence Summary 29 January 2007 – 04 February 2007

Nuclear Wasteland
February 2007

IEEE SPECTRUM MAGAZINE (NEW YORK, NY) — Areva would clearly be interested in licensing its reprocessing and MOX Reactor technology to non-nuclear-weapons countries which do not choose to participate in the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). The GNEP proposes that nations with “secure, advanced nuclear capabilities” reprocess the spent fuel from non-nuclear-weapons countries. However, without breeder reactors, which burn up all the residual fissile material found in spent fuels, reprocessing will simply concentrate high-level waste in a form that’s hotter and harder to handle. France’s attempt to build and run breeder reactors reliably at a commercial scale failed. Source: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4891 (Reliability: 5)

Analysis: It is highly likely that an increase in nuclear fuel reprocessing and the use of MOX fuel will increase nuclear proliferation, accidental criticalities (unexpected nuclear chain reactions during reprocessing), and nuclear accidents and contamination involving waste. (Analytic Confidence: 4)