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Nuclear reprocessing does not belong in a Climate bill

STOP GLOBAL WARMING
Bill Fowlie
1 August 09
Some members of Congress think they have the answer to what to do with high-level radioactive waste: “reprocessing”. Nuclear reprocessing separates plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear reactor fuel. Supporters of this costly and dangerous technology want to add reprocessing provisions to the Senate climate bill that is planned to be debated this fall.

Reprocessing would cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, undermine U.S. nonproliferation policy, pollute the environment, and threaten public health. According to the National Academy of Sciences, the cost of reprocessing existing spent fuel in the United States would total more than $500 billion.

The development of reprocessing technology in the US would make it harder to prevent other countries from pursuing this nuclear weapons technology. Moreover, reprocessing complicates the nuclear waste problem, rather than solves it. Reprocessing is the most polluting part of the nuclear fuel cycle and actually increases the amount of waste that must be managed.

Stop Global Warming – Change.org: Reprocessing is not a solution for spent fuel and does not belong in a climate bill.

August 1, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, climate change, politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear