Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Efficient nuke plants could lessen need for dumpsite, Domenici says

Nevada is locked in the middle of a nuclear waste disposal debate that could ease with a new generation of smaller, more efficient nuclear power plants necessary to a stable energy future for the nation, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said.

Yucca Mountain, the proposed national repository for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel, is "kind of the buck stops here," Domenici told more than 200 people packed into the Atomic Testing Museum on Flamingo Road and Swenson Street Monday night.

Domenici said nuclear waste should be stored, not buried permanently, until a technique for reprocessing and reusing it comes along.

Domenici, who chairs the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said while reprocessing nuclear fuel eventually will become necessary, since uranium is a limited resource like gas and coal, a Yucca Mountain repository is still needed but should be temporary.

Scientists are working on nuclear technology to build smaller nuclear reactors that can't burn up. "Then there's no 'China Syndrome,' " Domenici said, referring to the 1970s movie starring Jane Fonda that described a reactor core meltdown.

"We're just behind in the game," the senator, who has been in Congress 32 years, said.

Domenici has written a book, "A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy," in which he presents a case for nuclear power contributing energy to allow this nation and other countries to grow.

"You can't do it without energy," the senator said.

The senator noted that while the U.S. relies on nuclear power for 20 percent of its electricity, France supplies 80 percent of its power from the atom and China has ordered 20 new nuclear reactors.

"It's pathetic that in a country as powerful and smart as ours it's still a problem," he said, referring to fears about the dangers of nuclear power.

Domenici peppered his speech with salty remarks. At one point he asked, "Did any of you come out here to express some anti-nuclear feelings?"

At least one person who attended did. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said that Congress should find and fund a better method for handling, shipping and storing nuclear waste.

"I agree with the senator that we don't want to be beholden to Middle East dictators," Berkley said of U.S. reliance on foreign oil after the speech.

The Energy Department estimates it will cost $308 billion to ship the waste from 103 reactor sites by road and rail to Yucca Mountain, she said. Instead, put the funding into solar and wind power and leave nuclear waste in place stored inside dry casks.

"I don't think nuclear is the way to go," Berkley said. "Let's harness that sun, let's harness the wind."

Most of those attending Domenici's speech and book signing agreed with the senator's vision for nuclear energy.

"We are not reprocessing commercial nuclear fuel yet," Anthony Hechanova, in charge of the Transmutation Research Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said. The bulk of spent fuel -- 70,000 tons -- destined for Yucca Mountain, if it is approved, is from commercial reactors.

The United States has reprocessed small amounts of weapons-grade plutonium, Hechanova said. "It works," he said.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas students participated in stripping a small batch of spent nuclear fuel to almost pure uranium in 2002 inside an Energy Department laboratory, said Denis Beller, coordinator for the Department of Energy's Advanced Accelerator Applications program at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who is working at UNLV.

"We've got a lot of research and development to do" before developing a process that is efficient, cleaner and economical for reducing nuclear waste, Beller said.

But it would be worth it, he said.

The research on transforming nuclear waste into reuseable fuel needs up to $1 billion a year, he said.

Recycling nuclear fuel would cost the average power customer an extra 75 cents a month.

"That's all it takes is a policy change," Beller said.

Domenici declined to elaborate on future strategies to change nuclear waste policy.

As for progress on licensing Yucca Mountain by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Domenici said he had "some new ideas" to propel the repository forward.

The senator expects "a full battle about funding for the future: do we fund it every year or no?"

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