Reactor and Fuel Cycle Technology Subcommittee Report to the Full Commission DRAFT

The Reactor and Fuel Cycle Technology Subcommittee was formed to respond to the charge—set forth in the charter of the Blue Ribbon Commission—to evaluate existing fuel cycle technologies and R&D programs in terms of multiple criteria. According to the charter: “Criteria for evaluation should include cost, safety, resource utilization and sustainability, and the promotion of nuclear nonproliferation and counter-terrorism goals.” Given the Commission’s specific focus on policies for managing of the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, the Subcommittee also addressed the closely related question of whether any currently available reactor and fuel cycle technologies, or any not-yet commercial technologies that are now under development, have the potential to change either the fundamental nature of the nuclear waste management challenge the United States confronts over the next several decades or the approach the U.S. should take to implement a plan for the storage and ultimate disposition of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.