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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2016
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successful in developing technologies
like that, I think they open recycling up
to more countries. That’s the longer-
term future but for today, we can store it
safely for a very long time, make good
decisions, and there’s nothing about
nuclear waste, in my view, that should
forestall the continued deployment of
nuclear power plants.
4.
Has theNEA issued any guidelines for
an ideal solution for waste management?
I think the NEA and its Radioactive
Waste Management Committee (RWMC)
have taken a clear position for many years
about the wisdom of geologic disposal.
There’s a great deal of confidence in
geologic disposal. Within the technical
community, there’s really no controversy
about geologic disposal. We’ve actually
begun to shift our focus to not so much
the scientific and technical aspects of
geologic disposal, but more to the policy,
stakeholder and public communications
aspects. We’re starting to spend more
time talking about that, what kinds of
processes have countries used that have
been successful in bringing this issue
before the public and then reaching
conclusions in these areas. Obviously
in the US, it’s been a problem for quite
some time, and the Yucca Mountain
project has been halted. Everyone is
wondering what is next, and I know the
administration in the US has moved
forward with some consent, the beginning
of the consent-based process, but that’s
just the beginning. So there’s a lot of
uncertainty from the political standpoint,
but technically, there really isn’t any
controversy or any uncertainty.
5.
What is the status of the nuclear
liability regime in India?
There was a very important meeting
between the leaders of India and theUnited
States last year that resulted in a general
agreement that India would provide an
insurance pool to cover liability. And my
understanding is that the legislation for
that has been passed and it’s in place. I
think it’s now a question of whether the
vendors have enough confidence in that
process to go forward. I believe some
vendors may actually look at it and say
that’s close enough; we think we can
do business with this. Others might be
looking at it and saying we don’t like it,
we’re going to stay away from it. So you
may see a mixed reaction, but India is
going to be a huge market for the nuclear
power industry, and to walk away from
it would be a very, very difficult decision
for all the companies. I think that to be
responsible, they have to look at the rules
of the road, and in India how this pool
would work, what level of protection
it will provide as well as whether it is
sufficient to go forward, and that’s going
to be a decision made by each individual
company.
6.
What is the scope of IFNEC –
International Framework for Nuclear
Energy Cooperation?
The International Framework for
Nuclear Energy Cooperation (IFNEC)
was created about seven years ago,
initiated by the US to provide a
framework for discussion between highly
developed countries and countries that
have aspirations to build nuclear power
plants so as to work together to address
various issues and challenges. The
discussions have been very vigorous in
areas such as how to deal with nuclear
waste, how to deal with financing issues
and infrastructure issues. And so it’s been
quite a successful organization. We are
AAF
AECOM
AREVA Inc.
BIRNS, Inc.
EnergySolutions
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy
nuclear.gepower.com
HydroAire Service, Inc.
InterTest, Inc.
Invensys, Schneider-Electric
Kinectrics Inc.
Lifting Gear Hire
Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy
Systems, Inc.
Nutherm International, Inc.
OTEK Corporation
Radiation Protection Systems, Inc.
SNC-Lavalin
Super Radiator Coils
UniTech Services Group
Westinghouse Electric
Company LLC
