EnergySolutions to study possible plant sites

WASHINGTON — EnergySolutions will get a share of $16 million in federal grants to study three different sites as possible locations for a nuclear-waste reprocessing facility, the Energy Department said Wednesday.

The department named 11 sites throughout the nation that could be home to nuclear reprocessing facilities under its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a plan to restart reprocessing to encourage the growth of the use nuclear power to generate electricity.

"As our economy grows, so will the need for reliable, emissions-free energy generation," assistant secretary for nuclear energy Dennis Spurgeon said in a statement.

"Nuclear energy can help meet that need, and GNEP can do it in a way that maximizes the benefit of nuclear fuel while minimizing the risk of nuclear proliferation."

None of the potential sites is in Utah, but Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions proposed sites for study in Atomic City, Idaho; Barnwell, S.C.; and Roswell, N.M. — and the department approved them.

"We believe that if reprocessing is going to happen, there is going to have to be a large private component to it," said Greg Hopkins, EnergySolutions spokesman. "It is an enormous investment for the federal government, and it will have to have private experience and expertise to pull this off."

Hopkins pointed out that EnergySolutions is the only U.S. company with reprocessing technology. A British division of the company has already reprocessed the same amount of waste that the Energy Department has sitting in various places around the United States, Hopkins said.

The department will award the specific grants to the companies early next year after it completes final negotiations with the companies. EnergySolutions will then have 90 days to complete studies and environmental work needed to determine if a particular site would be suitable to house the Consolidated Fuel Treatment Center and the Advanced Burner Reactor. Each facility plays a different part in the fuel-recycling process.

Hopkins said EnergySolutions will focus on the recycling process over the burner reactor.

"We are pleased that so many communities across the country are interested in hosting the initial facilities necessary to support this exciting project," Spurgeon said. "These selections are an important initial step in proceeding to evaluate and select locations to host GNEP facilities."