Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Friday, August 2, 2019

“Nuclear Advocacy through Grassroots Education” “Using Yucca Mountain to Jump Start Nevada in the Energy Business”


US Nuclear Energy Foundation
Nuclear Advocacy through Grassroots Education
A Non-Profit 501 (C)(3) Nevada Foundation
PO Box 2867, Sparks, NV 89432 (775) 224-2089 www.usnuclearenergy.org Email comments@usnuclearenergy.org
Op-ed 08-02-19
Gary J. Duarte, Director, USNEF 775 224-2089
Using Yucca Mountain to
Jump Start Nevada in the Energy Business

The energy business in the United States is a $1.2 Trillion enterprise. With the popular trend to all- electric and carbon-free energy, Nevada is in the catbird seat to capitalize on this opportunity. So, Yucca Mountain is dead as far as being a “dump”. Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) is more valuable than gold, but Nevada does not seem to realize that. It is energy ready to recycle. I think you can see that if we capture only 5% of the energy business, we benefit at $60 Billion per year. Follow the logic, and a new approach can be quickly imagined. Read about this at http://www.usnuclearenergy.org/PDF-Documents/2019-NEW-PREMISE-FOR-YUCCA- MOUNTAIN.pdf.
Just to give you a preview, the entire program starts with recycling SNF. That’s right, recycling is the original method the nuclear industry in the United States planned to deal with used nuclear fuel. Through a series of political disasters, the responsibility was taken from the nuclear industry and vested in the US Government. That single disaster and has cost our taxpayers around $18 billion dollars and is costing $2.2 million per day to store SNF on reactor sites. It is time to cut our losses, build a high-tech business base for Nevada, and help our country move into a carbon-free future that has some possibilities. Nevada can lead the way if our leaders can grasp this concept quickly. Other States are looking at this and saying: “What’s not to like”?
If you recycle SNF, you can separate out the 3% of the fuel that makes SNF dangerous. The rest can be used as fuel in next-generation reactors. In return, a $5 billion per year revenue stream can be attained in about 5 years. It could include a Carbon-Free National Laboratory for tech transfer, next-generation nuclear fuel production, generation IV Small Modular Reactor research, military reactor applied research, and micro-grid development. All here in the Silver State. The best thing is that the business will become self-sufficient through private enterprise industry partners who are already blazing the trail in the next-generation energy business. Nevada has been given the first right of refusal and, so far, our leadership is rejecting all of this. “We the people” can help.
If the public does not engage in this issue, Nevada will be passed by. At this point, the first State to consent to accept SNF will get all these goodies for the asking. Why shouldn’t Nevada be that State? How many States can stay viable by passing up this amount of business diversity and economic gain?
Gary J. Duarte, Director, US Nuclear Energy Foundation
Steven Curtis, President, Alphatech, Inc.
The US. Nuclear Energy Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing accurate information on nuclear technology. USNEF has the goal of mobilizing citizens in Nevada and across the U.S. to design and build new "4th generation advanced reactors, Small Modular Reactors, (SMRs) the Yucca Mountain Repository and spent fuel reprocessing technology as science advances its economics".

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