Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

Barry Lawson Associates moderated a series of large public meetings in Illinois, Washington and Idaho as part of a scoping process for a programmatic environmental impact statement for a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiative.  As explained by DOE, this initiative, called The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), “seeks to develop worldwide consensus on enabling expanded use of economical, carbon-free nuclear energy to meet growing electricity demand. This will use a nuclear fuel cycle that enhances energy security, while promoting non-proliferation. It would achieve its goal by having nations with secure, advanced nuclear capabilities provide fuel services — fresh fuel and recovery of used fuel — to other nations who agree to employ nuclear energy for power generation purposes only.”  As DOE notes, “The closed fuel cycle model envisioned by this partnership requires development and deployment of technologies that enable recycling and consumption of long-lived radioactive waste.”

Three principal facilities in the United States currently envisioned by DOE under this initiative include (1) one to recycle high-level nuclear waste from nuclear power plants throughout the country in effect to extract fuel for (2) a nuclear power plant designed specifically to use this fuel, and (3) an advanced nuclear energy research facility.  Candidate sites for all three of these facilities are being considered as part of the programmatic environmental impact statement, primarily near existing DOE nuclear facilities.  Other public scoping meetings have been held in selected sites around the nation, and the results of the PEIS are scheduled to be available for public review and comment later in 2008. Lawson Associates has worked on this project as a subcontractor to Tetra-Tech, Inc. of Arlington, Virginia.