Scientists Push Electrorefining But Watchdog Groups Say Law Requires Impact Statement

Argonne National Laboratory scientists in Idaho want to continue developing electrorefining technology they say could make nuclear waste disposal cheaper.

But for nearly three months, watchdog groups have succeeded in delaying the project. They warn electrorefining runs counter to efforts to discourage unstable countries from developing nuclear weapons.

Argonne’s electrorefiner is located next to its EBR-II nuclear reactor at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

Electrorefining would melt the waste into a glasslike substance that would not leak into the ground water.

In August, the groups, led by the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute, told Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary that before Argonne can start experiments to solidify spent nuclear fuel, the law requires her agency to conduct an involved environmental impact statement.

“Our view is that an environmental impact statement is required and that anything less is a violation of the law,” said Dan Horner, Nuclear Control Institute’s deputy director.

Argonne spokesman Dick Lindsay said the firm disagrees because its scientists already had conducted a less-extensive environmental assessment on electrorefining when it was part of the Integral Fast Reactor project.

The Integral Fast Reactor was designed to extract energy from atomic waste fuel and convert it to electricity while rendering the waste safer and easier to dispose of.

But partly because the reactor easily can be converted to produce more plutonium than it burns, critics charged the project ran counter to U.S. non-proliferation efforts.

In 1994, Congress voted to kill the Integral Fast Reactor.

Now, opponents contend Argonne is trying to keep the electrorefining component alive in the hope Congress and a new administration will revive the Integral Fast Reactor.