GE Hitachi Pushes Congress to Adopts Nuclear Waste Recycling Technologies
Written by Glenn Pearston   
Thursday, 18 June 2009 15:27
GE Hitachi is pushing U.S. Congress to support the development of new technologies that will allow for recycling of spent nuclear fuel. Congress is presently working on legislation governing the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel. GEH, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, took the opportunity to ask congress to make research for the development of technologies that will allow spent nuclear fuel to be turning in to an asset rather than a liability. Lisa Price, Senior Vice President for GEH told the Science & Technology Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives that this technology is needed to secure the future of the nuclear energy industry as well as the well being of this and all countries. Price went on to say that reducing the risks of nuclear waste needs to be a priority.

GEH represents the only majority owned company by a U.S. based company and GEH is hoping that congress views the transformation of nuclear waster recycling technologies as a golden goose. The advantages will create jobs in the U.S., drive prosperity through economic gains, lower Greenhouse Gases, improve security of nuclear sites and provide an opportunity for the U.S. to take the lead in nuclear energy technology.

GEH has put the technologies in front of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the form of a facility design known as the ARC. The ARC is a prism sodium cooled reactor that is coupled with an electrometallurgical recycling facility. The goal is to provide a long term plan for the use of spent nuclear fuel.

Today, Spent Fuel is stored in casks or special pools at the nuclear reactor facility. Estimates indicate that 95% of material comprising spent nuclear fuel from Light Water nuclear reactors is untapped energy. This massive potential could generate energy in a different ways with newer technologies and next gen reactors. GEH's Generation IV PRISM is such a design. The design would take spent nuclear fuel and use it in the Generation IV to create electricity. This reduces the amount of nuclear waste that needs to be stored at a site and that has numerous positive aspects to it

The ARC would help meet President Obama's goals for climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG). Other benefits include new job creation and a reduction of waste materials and keeps the U.S. at the front of nuclear energy research and technologies.

GEH is based in Wilmington, North Carolina and is a leading producer of advanced nuclear technologies used in nuclear reactors.


Glenn Pearston
Written on Thursday, 18 June 2009 15:27 by Glenn Pearston

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