Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In fiscal year 1999, DOE crafted a long-term nuclear energy R and D agenda
that focused on developing more efficient systems and proliferation-resistant fuel
cycles, devising new technologies for managing nuclear waste, and designing a
fourth generation of nuclear reactors that would not use conventional light water
reactor technology. In fiscal year 2001, DOE prioritized its R and D program to
focus on (1) the Nuclear Power 2010 program, (2) the Advanced Fuel Cycle
Initiative (AFCI), and (3) the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative.
DOE's Nuclear Power 2010 initiative has shared the costs that participating
power companies have incurred in preparing either an early site permit or an
application for an NRC license to construct and operate an advanced Generation
III nuclear power reactor. In the years after the Three Mile Island accident, the
nuclear power industry stated that NRC's regulatory process had become too
cumbersome, leading to costly delays in construction and licensing and becoming
a major stumbling block to investing in a new nuclear reactor. In response, NRC
promulgated regulations in 1989 that established a single combined license to
construct and operate a new reactor, replacing its prior requirement that
companies obtain both a construction permit and an operating license.[15] More
recently, in fiscal year 2002, to encourage power companies to apply to NRC for a
combined construction and operating license, DOE initiated a demonstration
program with three power companies seeking early site permits for potential
nuclear reactor sites in Illinois, Mississippi, and Virginia. The permits,
applications for which were submitted to NRC in 2003, would allow the sites to
be used for nuclear power plants, but the power companies still would have to
apply to NRC for a combined license to construct and operate any reactors later
built on these sites. In fiscal year 2004, DOE began a demonstration program with
two industry consortia to develop applications for NRC licenses to build and
operate two additional reactors at existing nuclear power plants. These
applications may be submitted to NRC next year. Even if NRC approves the
licenses, which NRC estimates will take 42 months, the industry consortia have
not committed to constructing the new reactors. The industry has, however,
received license extensions for 44 of the 103 operating nuclear reactors. DOE
allocated $65.3 million to the Nuclear Power 2010 program in fiscal year 2006
and requested $54 million for fiscal year 2007.
The AFCI program is designed to develop and demonstrate technologies for
reprocessing spent nuclear fuel that could recover the fuel for reuse, minimize
proliferation threats, and reduce the long-term hazard and disposal requirements
of spent nuclear fuel. In the 1970s, the United States pioneered reprocessing
technologies, but it abandoned the concept because of concerns about nuclear
proliferation—plutonium could be separated to manufacture nuclear weapons.[16]
