Rethinking the waste – Watt?

Rick Perry

The Supreme Court's oral debate earlier this month reminds us that our country has a 66-year-old nuclear energy problem – and that there is a prepared solution in recycling used nuclear fuel.

question

Nuclear energy generates nearly 20% of the electricity. The fuel used to run our reactor fleet loses its intensity over time. Fuels that are used but not yet exhausted are referred to as nuclear fuels used (“UNF”). Currently, 90,000 tons of UNF is stored in reactor sites in 39 states in the United States, including about 4,000 tons in my hometown of Texas.

In 1982, the federal government was charged with a Congressional bill to evacuate and dispose of reactor sites and had charged more than $20 billion from reactor owners to cover the cost of disposing of UNF. To date, the government has not removed any large amount of UNF from anywhere in the United States, including Texas, and has no current plans.

As President Trump’s first energy secretary, it is clear that even if the 1982 bill does not require legal consent, any plan to relocate UNT requires some actual consent to the receiving state and local communities.

The consequences of not resolving this issue resulted in financial losses in the United States and left UNF at numerous reactor sites across the United States. Private efforts to establish UNF temporary storage facilities in West Texas and New Mexico. Although there are some local acceptances in temporary storage facilities in Texas or New Mexico, there are also significant oppositions. The boycott of those private temporary storage proposals led to the NRC v. Texas' current case being heard in the Supreme Court.

Solution

We should rethink our approach. In addition to storing UNF, we should also consider other options, either temporary or permanent. Our country should explore taking a completely different approach to achieving our ultimate goal: removing UNF from reactor sites. Recycling UNF makes more sense than permanent storage and creates needed and currently unused energy.

The recycling technology was originally developed in the United States and has been used in France, Japan, Russia, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, China, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. During my tenure as Minister of Energy, I personally visited many reprocessing facilities in other countries.

The United States should develop recycling policies so that the country's 90,000 metric tons of UNF can be recycled and manufactured into mixed oxide fuels (“Mox fuels”). The resulting MOX fuel can be used in nuclear reactors to create reliable and clean energy.

By developing recycling policies, the following four issues will be addressed and economic opportunities will be created:

First, the United States can solve the national problem, namely, stay away from the reactor site, because it has to do it. Second, the United States can restart the nuclear utilities’ termination payment plan to remove UNF to supplement the Treasury Department at $2 billion a year. Third, it also addresses the concerns of temporary or long-term storage near our population centers. Finally, Mox fuel could replace 20% of the U.S. nuclear fuel currently purchased from Russia.

Adopting such policies will create jobs and much-needed energy for the needs of the grid. Today, Mox fuel is widely used in nuclear reactor fleets in Europe and Japan. The United States is behind its industrial neighbors and needs to catch up with UNF's treatment.

Sometimes, the biggest problem has simple solutions.

Rick Perry is former governor of Texas and the 14th energy secretary.

This article was originally published by RealClearenergy and is provided by Realclearwire.

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