CLOSING THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE - THE IMPACT OF INDECISION

For nearly 25 years, the nuclear fuel cycle has been planned as a fully-integrated energy system. In these plans, natural uranium from the mine flows through conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication to the reactor. Spent fuel is discharged from the reactor and transported to a reprocessing plant where the unburned uranium is recovered for recycle. Plutonium produced as a byproduct in the reactor, is also recovered in the reprocessing plant and returned as fuel to the reactor. Finally, radioactive wastes are separated in the cycle and carefully packaged for transportation to a Federal Repository for permanent storage. Substantial private capital has already been committed to achieve this planned integrated nuclear energy system. In reality, however, the commercial nuclear fuel cycle has not been closed. Reprocessing, mixed oxide fuel fabrication, and waste management remain as open segments. Indecisiveness in the matter of closing the nuclear fuel cycle became a tangible factor in nuclear-program planning as a result of the lack of resolution of questions on these open segments. A combination of nuclear intervenors, the position taken by the Council on Environmental Quality on the Generic Environmental Impact Statement on Mixed Oxide Fuel (GESMO), and the lack of decisions by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) regarding the disposition of waste materials resulting from reprocessing and recycle of mixed oxide fuel, has caused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and ERDA to engage in a lengthy series of steps to satisfy these objectives. Delay in the decisions about GESMO and the disposition of waste materials, i.e., a Federal Repository, is now variously estimated to last until the late 1970's to early 1980's, or even longer. The position of NRC, as stated in its mid-November publication, recognizes the possibility of a negative decision on GESMO and Plutonium recycle. In such a climate, indecision about going ahead on many aspects of nuclear investments becomes quite understandable.