A New Nuke Sell: Reprocessing

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As "part of an effort to jump-start the nuclear-power industry," the Bush administration is proposing "a $250 million initiative to reprocess spent nuclear fuel." The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership proposal would allow General Electric and other U.S. companies to sell developing countries "reactors and nuclear fuel on the condition that the U.S. would take back the spent fuel for reprocessing." An Argonne National Laboratory official said a new reprocessing method "would reduce the nation's eventual need for more nuclear-waste storage by 'a factor of more than 100.'" Waste storage is perhaps the nuclear industry's biggest political, environmental and safety problem. The Nuclear Energy Institute just hired Hill & Knowlton to promote Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a waste site. In Britain, where a "national debate" on nuclear power is taking place, officials "have dodged the decision of where to put [reactor waste] for 30 years," reports the Independent.