The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced it has extended the time to submit comments on the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for President Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) from April 4, 2007 to June 4, 2007. DOE is extending the time for submittal of comments on the proposed scope, alternatives, and environmental issues to be analyzed in the GNEP PEIS. DOE will publish its notice in the Federal Register on April 3, 2007.

“Continuing the environmental scoping process means we will continue to better understand the environmental conditions under which we will be operating,” DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said. “We have seen strong support for GNEP all across the country and it’s encouraging to hear that an increasing number of Americans recognize the growing need for nuclear energy, a safe, affordable and emissions-free power source.”

The GNEP PEIS will analyze the potential domestic environmental impacts for both programmatic and project-specific proposed actions, as well as reasonable alternatives, and will also evaluate, at a programmatic level, the potential environmental impacts associated with the international initiatives.

GNEP would recycle spent nuclear fuel and destroy its long-lived radioactive components. To accomplish this, GNEP proposes the following three facilities:

• A nuclear fuel recycling center, which would separate spent nuclear fuel into reusable and waste components and then manufacture new nuclear fast reactor fuel using the reusable components.
• An advanced recycling reactor, which would destroy long-lived radioactive elements in the new fuel while generating electricity.
• An advanced fuel cycle research facility, which would perform research and development into spent nuclear fuel recycling processes and other advanced nuclear fuel cycles.

GNEP also includes two international initiatives: 1) Ensure reliable fuel services, in which the U.S would cooperate with countries that have advanced nuclear programs to supply nuclear fuel services to other countries that refrain from pursuing enrichment or recycling; and 2) Deployment of proliferation-resistant nuclear power reactors suitable for use in developing economies.

For a list of all sites under consideration for GNEP facilities, for more information on GNEP or to review the full text of the GNEP PEIS Notice of Intent, visit: http://www.gnep.energy.gov/.

Media contact(s):
Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940