U.S. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Policies On the Line: Has DOE Prepared a”Nuclear Non-Proliferation Impact Assessment” for New Spent Fuel Reprocessing Technique being Developed at SRS?
In a letter to SRS Watch dated December 8, 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy has acknowledged receipt of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting the “nuclear non-proliferation impact assessment” prepared on a new reprocessing technology being developed by Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), to reprocess German graphite spent fuel to remove uranium. The new reprocessing method for the German commercial spent fuel holds proliferation concerns in that it could be used to extract weapon-grade uranium from such graphite spent fuel.
— see FOIA initiial response letter linked here
Given that DOE is actively considering the import of German commercial graphite spent fuel to SRS, has the proliferation impact assessment actually been prepared? If not, why not?
The response to the FOIA request will be telling and will indicate if DOE aims to honor the spirit of the nuclear non-proliferation regime or is attempting to weaken it so that special interests can profit by the reprocessing and dumping of German spent fuel at SRS.
Stay tuned to see if DOE is working to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation policies or undermine and weaken them.