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UCS to the NRC: Stop Dragging Your Feet on Important Nuclear Security Updates
Yesterday, UCS sent a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman Stephen Burns urging the NRC to quickly issue new versions of two outdated security documents that play a critical role in...
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US Needs More Options than Yucca Mountain for Nuclear Waste
On Wednesday, I testified at a hearing of the Environment Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing focused on the discussion draft of a bill entitled “The Nuclear Waste...
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: NNSA’s FY18 Budget Request
On Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration released its Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) budget request. In an overall federal budget where many, many programs faced severe budget cuts, the National Nuclear...
View ArticleUCS in Science: The NRC Must Act to Reduce the Dangers of Spent Fuel Pool...
In a Policy Forum article published in this week’s Science magazine, I argue, along with my co-authors Frank von Hippel and Michael Schoeppner, that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) needs...
View ArticleTrump Administration Blocks Government Scientists from Attending...
The Trump administration has barred the participation of US government technical experts on nuclear energy from attending a major international conference in Russia. The conference, co-sponsored by the...
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The Pyroprocessing Files
The article by Ralph Vartabedian in the Los Angeles Times highlights the failure of the Department of Energy’s decades-long effort to chemically process a stockpile of spent nuclear fuel at Idaho...
View ArticleThe “Versatile Fast Neutron Source”: A Misguided Nuclear Reactor Project
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) supports a moderate level of Department of Energy (DOE) research funding to make nuclear power safer and more secure—for example the agency’s program to develop...
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Another Nail in the Coffin of the Misguided MOX Program
In the Fiscal Year 2018 omnibus spending bill passed by the House of Representatives yesterday and the Senate today, Congress is taking an encouraging step toward terminating the wasteful and dangerous...
View ArticleThe Versatile Test Reactor Debate: Round 2
In mid-February, the House of Representatives passed the “Nuclear Energy Research Infrastructure Act of 2017” (H.R. 4378). It authorizes the secretary of energy to spend nearly $2 billion to build and...
View ArticleThere are Faster, Cheaper, Safer and More Reliable Alternatives to the Energy...
Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Rick Perry recently announced the launch of the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) project, flagging it as one of the department’s top priorities. The project, which...
View ArticleThe NRC’s MOX Decision: Out of Step on Cybersecurity
On April 1, President Obama declared that the increasing threat of cyberterrorism was a “national emergency.” White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel said “We very much need the full range...
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The Days of MOX Are Numbered
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee hosted the latest installment in the ongoing debate over the fate of the troubled Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) Fabrication project at the...
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Ominous Votes by the NRC
In two separate decisions earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) voted to change its procedures in ways that will weaken protection of nuclear power plants against terrorist...
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No Rush to Build a U.S. Military Enrichment Plant
A new Energy Department report finds new capacity to enrich uranium for military purposes won’t be needed for decades. Earlier this month, the Department of Energy (DOE) submitted its long overdue...
View ArticleIndependent Report Confirms that Downblending and Geologic Disposal is Best...
Today, UCS is releasing the Phase 2 report of the “Plutonium Disposition Options Independent Assessment” carried out by the Aerospace Corporation. This report, dated August 20, 2015, but only now...
View ArticleQuick Take on the FY 2017 NNSA Budget Request
Weapons Program Budgets Up, Nonproliferation Budget Down On February 9, the Obama administration unveiled the Fiscal Year 2017 budget request, its final annual submission to Congress of this kind. In...
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The Perfect Gift for the Nuclear Security Summit
As the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit convenes today, here’s an idea for a great parting gift that President Obama can offer to the international community. The United States possesses a...
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Bad science: Russian objections to US plutonium proposal not a reason to keep...
President Putin recently made some alarming statements about U.S. plans to cancel the current American approach to disposing of excess plutonium. His comments are important because the United States...
View ArticleWill Congress Reject the Administration’s New Plan to Dispose of Excess...
After several years and multiple studies, the Obama administration—led by the Department of Energy (DOE)—finally has a new plan to get rid of the excess plutonium generated by the U.S. nuclear weapons...
View ArticleNuclear Plant Security on the 15th Anniversary of 9/11: The Need to Remain...
Although the September 11, 2001, attacks are becoming a distant memory, it would be a big mistake to forget that the danger to the United States from both international and domestic terrorists remains...
View ArticleNew Army Corps of Engineers Report Reveals that the Problems with MOX Run Deep
Late Friday afternoon, the Department of Energy released an updated assessment of the status of construction of the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The report...
View ArticleAnother knock against MOX
The MOX program has been staggering along for years, struggling for survival. Today’s news, that Russia is suspending the joint U.S.-Russian agreement to dispose of excess plutonium, should be the...
View ArticleLet’s Get a Better Deal on Plutonium Disposition
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to renegotiate international agreements to get “better deals” for the United States. A good place for him to start would be the U.S.-Russia Plutonium...
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Reflections on the IAEA Nuclear Security Conference: More Participants, Less...
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the conference on nuclear security in Vienna sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The conference was enormous, with 2,000 participants...
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