October 17, 2008Printer Friendly Version

DOE Announces Availability of GNEP Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, October 17, 2008, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing the availability of its Draft Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The document provides an analysis of the potential environmental consequences of alternatives to the present U.S. open fuel cycle, in which nuclear fuel is used one time and eventually sent to geologic disposal.

The proposed GNEP Program, which is part of the President's Advanced Energy Initiative, is intended to support a safe, secure, and sustainable expansion of nuclear energy, both domestically and internationally. Domestically, the GNEP Program would promote technologies that support economic, sustained production of nuclear-generated electricity, while reducing the impacts associated with spent nuclear fuel disposal and reducing proliferation risks. At this time, DOE has no specific proposed actions for the international component of the GNEP Program. Rather, the United States, through the GNEP Program, is considering various initiatives to work cooperatively with other nations.

The GNEP PEIS provides an analysis of the potential environmental impacts of expanding nuclear power in the U.S. using either the existing fuel cycle or various alternative closed and open fuel cycles. DOE's preference is to close the nuclear fuel cycle, although a specific preferred alternative has not yet been selected.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that an Environmental Impact Statement be prepared in order to inform the public and the decision makers of the potential environmental impacts of proposed major Federal actions and the reasonable alternatives prior to making decisions on any such proposals. For a broad program such as GNEP, which could involve many actions with far-reaching consequences over a long period of time, a program-level EIS (referred to as a PEIS), is the appropriate document because it is relevant to policy-level decisions and is timed to coincide with meaningful points in agency planning and decision making.

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Six programmatic domestic alternatives are assessed: No Action Alternative-Existing Once-Through Uranium Fuel Cycle; Fast Reactor Recycle Fuel Cycle Alternative; Thermal/Fast Reactor Recycle Fuel Cycle Alternative; Thermal Reactor Recycle Fuel Cycle Alternative; Once-Through Fuel Cycle Alternative using Thorium; and Once-Through Fuel Cycle Alternative using Heavy Water Reactors or High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors.

DOE will hold 13 public hearings in nine states and the District of Columbia on the Draft PEIS. See the attached list for times, dates, and locations of the hearings. A 60-day public comment period begins today.

No decision to proceed with any alternative for the GNEP Program will be made until at least 30 days after publication in the Federal Register of the Notice of Availability of the Final PEIS, which is planned to be issued in 2009.

A copy of the Draft PEIS is available by calling 1-866-645-7803 or at http://www.gnep.energy.gov

GNEP Draft PEIS Public Hearings

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