Bush Budget Encourages More Pollution and Increased Risk of Nuclear Materials Moving Through Your State Bush's current budget calls for $250 million to fund the reprocessing of waste from commercial nuclear reactors in the United States. Reprocessing separates uranium and plutonium from radioactive fuel. It is an extremely expensive and polluting process. Also, it increases the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation.  The Bush administration claims that its proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a program to promote reprocessing in the U.S. and abroad and through which reprocessing will be financed, will solve the nuclear waste problem created by nuclear reactors. In fact, the recommended reprocessing will: Make more waste streams that must be managed Fail to eliminate the need for a geologic repository for the waste Increase the threat posed to important drinking water sources Tell your Senators and Representative to oppose funding for reprocessing radioactive waste! For more information about reprocessing, see Public Citizen's page on reprocessing nuclear waste by clicking here.  For more information about alternatives to reprocessing and nuclear power, click here.

February 09, 2010 Subject: As your constituent, I am writing to urge you to oppose any funding for reprocessing nuclear waste under the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative in the FY2007 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Reprocessing, the separation of uranium and plutonium from irradiated fuel, is an extremely expensive and polluting process that won’t solve our nuclear waste problem. Moreover, it would undermine U.S. nonproliferation efforts. The $250 million budget request for reprocessing is a part of the proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), a large, expensive program to promote reprocessing in the United States and in other countries. The necessary technologies for the GNEP program, including reprocessing, fast reactors, and plutonium fuel, are far from mature. Also, DOE should not receive federal funding for developing reprocessing or transmutation technologies until it provides Congress with a comprehensive lifecycle analysis and plan. Without this information, Congress cannot determine whether this proposal is fiscally sound and in the best interests of U.S. national and energy security. Commercial reprocessing is not a new idea. In fact, more than $40 billion has been spent globally on reprocessing technologies that have never become commercially successful. A 1996 report by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the costs of reprocessing and transmutation of irradiated fuel from waste produced by existing U.S. reactors alone “easily could be more than $100 billion,” in the addition to the cost of a geologic repository. Reprocessing will not solve our country’s nuclear waste problem, because it will make more waste streams that must be managed and cannot eliminate the need for a geologic repository. The U.S. has not cleaned up the mess from past reprocessing. The only private commercial reprocessing facility in the United States, West Valley in New York, resulted in radioactive waste that is still threatening the Great Lakes watershed more than 30 years later and will cost $5.2 billion to clean up. U.S. taxpayers are also on the hook for more than $100 billion to clean up the reprocessing waste at the U.S. nuclear weapons sites that reprocessed to get plutonium for nuclear weapons, as well as reprocessed naval fuel. Reprocessing would also undermine global nonproliferation efforts. Lack of sufficient fissile material is the primary obstacle keeping non-weapons states and terrorist organizations from creating and using nuclear weapons. Implementing reprocessing would increase the risk that terrorists could obtain plutonium. I urge you to oppose any funding for reprocessing commercial irradiated fuel in the FY2007 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Sincerely, We will add your signature from the information you provide.		First Name* Last Name* Email* Street* Street 2 Street 3 City* State/Province* Select a state Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware D.C. Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Armed Forces (the) Americas Armed Forces Europe Armed Forces Pacific Alberta British Columbia Manitoba Newfoundland New Brunswick Nova Scotia Northwest Territories Nunavut Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon Territory Other Zip/Postal Code* Add me to the following list(s): Energy Program Take action on issues that can affect your wallet, your health and your future. Receive alerts on energy, big oil and more.