Revisiting Reprocessing: Recent U.S. Efforts to Promote Spent Fuel Reprocessing

For 30 years, the U.S. has chosen to adopt the \"once-through\" nuclear fuel cycle. Although President Reagan officially abandoned the \"no reprocessing\" government policy, concerns that reprocessing was too costly and too risky have caused the policy to continue to be followed. Now, the Bush administration wants to reverse that policy with something called the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), a multi-billion dollar research effort aimed at reprocessing spent nuclear fuel not just from reactors in the U.S., but in the future from developing countries as well. The administration is seeking $250 million in seed money for GNEP in its fiscal year 2007 budget request to support reprocessing research and development, including research into ways to minimize the possible use of reprocessed fuel in a weapons program. This presentation will consider the level of interest that the GNEP program has generated in Congress and the political hurdles that will have to be overcome in order for it to achieve meaningful success.