Jacques Besnainou, head of Areva’s North American unit, said the company was in discussions with several utilities about forming an alliance to advocate for a recycling center.
“We’re hopeful that we can start planning for such a facility by 2015,” Besnainou told reporters at a briefing held by The Energy Daily, a trade publication.
Once planning began, it would take about 10 years to get a facility up and running, he said.
Interest in nuclear waste recycling has increased after Japan’s nuclear crisis exposed the dangers of storing waste at power plants indefinitely, Besnainou said.
“One of the things we’re discovering in Fukushima is leaving used fuel in ... a spent fuel pool may not be a very
wise decision,” he said.
Efforts to regain control of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex have been hampered by the overheating of pools containing spent fuel.
There is no law against building a nuclear recycling center in the US, but Besnainou said new regulations would
be needed from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to help support such a facility.
He said it would help if the US created an agency solely focused on handling nuclear waste that could help
with funding and planning for a recycling center.
The United States has no permanent storage site for nuclear waste. The Obama administration shelved the long-delayed Yucca Mountain, Nevada spent fuel dump, a decision maligned by Republicans and lawmakers from states holding significant amounts of nuclear waste.
Besnainou said a recycling center would be preferable to developing interim storage sites, such as those being
considered by the Obama administration’s Blue Ribbon commission on nuclear waste.
“When you do a recycling center, you’re being part of the solution. You’re taking care of the fuel, you’re making the fuel less dangerous,” Besnainou said. “Interim storage is kicking the can down the road.”
The amount of used fuel left over after recycling is much less than the US must manage now, and having a recycling center would delay the need to decide on a permanent storage site by at least 50 years, Besnainou said.
