ERDA POLICY ON ASSISTANCE TO THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE

It is a pleasure to be here to participate in your 17th Annual Meeting. ERDA is seeking to have private industry build and perform all services in the nuclear fuel cycle with the exception of the terminal storage program in waste management. ERDA assistance to private industry in the nuclear fuel cycle has undergone change over the years. For example, the commercial reprocessing R§D program which was terminated in 1963 has been reinstated in 1976. Today I would like to discuss the current ERDA assistance program in the fuel cycle areas of uranium resources, enrichment, reprocessing and recycle, and waste management. Figure 1 shows the specific ERDA programs that will be discussed; the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program, the Nuclear Fuel Assurance Act (NFAA), the commercial charge for enrichment services, Expressions of Interest (EOI) for commercial reprocessing/recycle, and the waste solidification and terminal storage programs. The importance of the fuel cycle programs is reflected in ERDA's fiscal year budget (Figure 2). Major increases over the fiscal year 1976 budget are shown in each category of the nuclear fuel cycle budget. Total operating costs increased $272 million from $740 to $1,012 million and plant and capital equipment obligations increased $217 million from $328 million to $545 million.