Up until the mid-1970s the commercial nuclear industry was expected to operate several nuclear fuel reprocessing plants to recover fissile plutonium from virtually all of the commercial spent fuel from U.S reactors. These plants would use aqeous reprocessing methods developed by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The recovered plutonium was to be used as mixed oxide fuel (PuO2 and U02) in water reactors and, later, as fuel in breeder reactors. Each reprocessing plant had one or two storage pools to receive and store the fuel temporarily until it was reprocessed. No long-term storage of the spent fuel from comnmercial reactors was planned. Only two commercial reprocessing sites have received spent fuel, West Valley, New York, and G.E.-Morris, Illinois.
[Source: National Research Council Committee on the Safety and Security of Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage, SAFETY AND SECURITY OF COMMERCIAL SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL STORAGE, Public Report, 2006, p. 102]

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Jan 21, 2012

Retired DOE official Clinton Bastin blames 1973 oil embargo on US reneging on promise to provide nuclear fuel reprocessing technology to Iran

Clinton Bastin has been writing letters to leaders including Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu voicing his conclusions that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons capability and that claims to the contrary are from incompetents. Mr. Bastin discussed these matters in an interview published by the (LaRouche) EIR magazine last month. Here's some excerpts that deal with reprocessing:

Q: What is your assessment of Iran's nuclear program?

It's a nuclear power program. Iran made a commitment to full use of nuclear power in 1970, ordered five nuclear plants from the United States, which promised, but later denied, reprocessing technology. This resulted in Iran's cancelling the U.S. plants and ordering them from others, which were cancelled during the revolution. But Iran has stayed committed to nuclear power. Russia is building Iran's nuclear plant, which is ready to start operation. Because of the denial of reprocessing, Iran is reluctant to rely on others, so they wanted to enrich their own uranium, which is essential for nuclear power. That's what they're doing. ... ... The U.S. State Department promised Iran all the technology needed. But the reprocessing technology promised to Iran had failed in U.S. programs. I'd been transferred to Atomic Energy Commission headquarters to deal with those failures, and was given the staff paper to review for the transfer of technology that would be provided to Iran. I recommended that the reprocessing technology not be provided, and the AEC denied the transfer. That led, partially, to an early breakdown of relations between the U.S. and Iran, and -- in my opinion -- the oil embargo of 1973. I remember reading about Iranian oil ships that were at sea during long periods of time during that embargo.