Review of Three GAO Reports on Nuclear Power, Nuclear Waste
This FYI highlights three GAO reports released in past months. The reports address different issues relating to nuclear power production and nuclear waste.
“Nuclear Safety: International Efforts to Make Soviet-Designed Reactors Safer” (GAO/RCED-94-234; September 1994; 43 pages) focuses on the dangers of the oldest Soviet-designed nuclear power reactors, still in use in the Former USSR and Eastern Europe. In 1992, the G-7 nations established a Nuclear Safety Working Group to improve reactor safety and replace the most dangerous reactors with alternative sources of energy. The US has proposed $150 million worth of projects, of which about $18 million has been spent so far on such things as operator training, emergency response centers, improved fire protection, emergency cooling systems, backup generators, and assisting countries’ regulatory organizations to improve their authority and political stature. GAO finds, though, that the programs’ effectiveness is hard to measure.
“Nuclear Waste: Foreign Countries’ Approaches to High-Level Waste Storage and Disposal” (GAO/RCED-94-172; August 1994; 59 pages) looks at how other nations deal with waste from nuclear power plants. GAO emphasizes that other countries have successfully separated the issues of temporary storage (usually at the utility site) and development of a permanent repository. Foreign utilities also have more responsibility and flexibility in storing the waste. While none of the countries has yet developed a permanent site, adequate temporary storage allows them time to address the political and technical issues of a permanent repository, including engineering safer containers. “In contrast to the programs in most other nations,” GAO states, the US has chosen deal with the two issues simultaneously, with the result that “DOE’s schedule objectives are unrealistic and are inappropriately driving the program.”
A third report, “Department of Energy: Management Changes Needed to Expand Use of Innovative Cleanup Technologies” (GAO/RCED-94-205; August 1994; 22 pages) reports that DOE will need new and improved ways to clean up many of its nuclear weapons production sites. However, GAO finds that technology needs are not comprehensively identified and prioritized, nor is DOE’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) well coordinated with other development programs. Those responsible for selecting technologies (EPA or state and local officials) may have competing interests. (For example, local governments may see the cleanup effort in terms of economic and job development; contractors may prefer to use familiar technologies.) DOE has implemented some changes, such as identifying technology “focus” areas, coordinating all cleanup technology development under OTD, and establishing measures to evaluate the performance of the technologies. “Although DOE’s new strategy should help,” GAO warns, “insufficient emphasis is given to ensuring that all parties...are knowledgeable about the strengths of the technical innovations being studied.”
A single copy of each report is available free of charge from the US General Accounting Office at 202-512-6000.
