Nations voice differing opinions on the recycling of spent fuel at DC summit
– Edited by April Murelio –
According to a report by Bloomberg, debate over the recycling of nuclear fuel by reactor suppliers such as France’s Areva SA surfaced in Washington as U.S. officials sought to skirt the issue during President Barack Obama’s summit.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and former U.S. ambassador-at-large Robert Gallucci called for an end to the fuel-recycling practice this week at a conference of experts being held in parallel with Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit.
The summit focused on keeping separated plutonium and highly enriched uranium out of the hands of terrorists, and Evans and Gallucci said that recycling creates stockpiles of dangerous materials at risk for theft. Fuel recycling is drawing attention as the number of nations pursuing nuclear power for their energy needs is expected to double by mid-century, according to the White House.
The position of Evans and Gallucci drew a retort from Areva’s former director of non-proliferation and international institutions, who was attending the summit.
“Recycling in the proper manner in good conditions can be a support to non-proliferation efforts,” Caroline Jorant, who is leaving Areva to become a consultant, told the meeting organized by the Fissile Materials Working Group, which is supporting Obama’s efforts.
Areva is the biggest maker of mixed oxide fuel (MOX), a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxide which can be used to generate power.
The issue was not among those central to the Obama summit, as administration officials seek to forge a consensus among 47 nations on working harder to keep nuclear materials away from terrorists.
“Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history — the risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up,” Obama said at the summit.
Obama hasn’t taken a stance on the specific issue of nuclear-fuel recycling, and a proposal under the administration of President George W. Bush to have the U.S. government establish an international spent-fuel recycling program is stalled.
Obama directed Energy Secretary Steven Chu earlier this year to form a blue-ribbon commission to study “all alternatives for the storage, processing and disposal of civilian and defense used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste” in a way that would be “consistent with U.S. nonproliferation goals.” The panel is headed up by by former Democratic Representative Lee Hamilton of Indiana and Brent Scowcroft, a former national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush.
President Obama pledged to support nuclear power with steps such as government loans for new reactors as one way to provide a cleaner energy source in his drive to combat climate change.