GLOBAL NUCLEAR ENERGY PARTNERSHIP: YUCCA MOUNTAIN’S SAVIOR OR SAVANNAH RIVER’S FOE?

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) touts the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) as an environmentally friendly approach to provide virtually limitless energy to emerging economies around the world while reducing the risk of nuclear proliferation. DOE plans to reduce the amount of high-level radioactive waste for disposal in a national repository and reduce nuclear proliferation risks by recycling and converting fissionable materials into safer isotopes. To accomplish these goals, DOE intends to build a spent nuclear fuel processing plant composed of various GNEP facilities. Many proponents of GNEP support siting the GNEP facilities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina so that the high-level radioactive waste that results from processing spent fuel at these facilities can be permanently disposed of through shallow land burial in an effort to reduce the burden on the proposed national repository. However, without Yucca Mountain operational, GNEP will do little to resolve the nation’s radioactive waste crisis. In addition, the Savannah River Site is not a viable location to host GNEP facilities. GNEP facilities will not only exacerbate the Savannah River Site’s overabundance of radioactive waste, but the disposal of the additional waste that results from processing spent fuel at these facilities will produce serious long-term health and environmental consequences for the citizens South Carolina and Georgia.