Wednesday, July 01, 2009

DOE Cancels GNEP Environmental Impact Statement

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has decided to cancel the preparation of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).

Via Federal Register notice, DOE announced that it has decided to cancel the GNEP PEIS because it is no longer pursuing domestic commercial reprocessing. The Center supports domestic commercial reprocessing.

Fortunately, the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 provides $145 million for the continuation of research and development (R&D) on proliferation-resistant fuel cycles and waste management strategies. As described in the President's Fiscal Year 2010 budget request, the Department's fuel cycle R&D's focus is on long-term, science-based R&D of technologies with the potential to produce beneficial changes to the manner in which the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear waste is managed.

The Center is promoting a Nuclear Waste Management Agency that would take nuclear waste managment out of the Department of Energy and place it in this independent agency.

(Federal Register)

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