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U.S. Should Revise Fee System for Recovering U.S.-Supplied Research Reactor Fuel, GAO Says By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department should revise the fees charged to international research reactors in an effort to repatriate U.S.-origin spent fuel to increase participation in the program, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Friday (see GSN, Oct. 1). Research reactors in 34 countries are eligible to repatriate U.S.-origin spent highly enriched uranium (HEU) and low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuels through the department’s spent fuel acceptance program. The purpose of the program is to recover U.S.-supplied highly enriched uranium, which poses proliferation risks, for secure final disposal, as well as to encourage foreign research reactors to convert to the use of low-enriched uranium fuel. The spent fuel acceptance program is part of the U.S. Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which was launched in May. The initiative seeks to recover all U.S.-origin research reactor spent fuel within a decade, as well as to repatriate fresh and spent Russian-origin research reactor fuel by 2010. Of the 23 countries eligible to take part in the Energy Department program that still possess U.S.-origin HEU fuel, 11 have not reached repatriation agreements with the department. Those countries are Austria, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, as well as Iran and Pakistan, which pose increased proliferation concerns. The World Bank designates four of the 11 nonparticipating countries as high-income nations — Austria, Israel, Japan and South Korea. The other seven countries would not be charged for repatriation by the United States, which would also pay most of the cost for transportation of U.S.-origin spent fuel. The GAO report notes several reasons for the lack of agreements, including plans by research reactor operators to continue to use HEU fuel due to the costs of converting to use low-enriched uranium, as well as claims by some countries as to the high transportation costs of returning the material. To encourage greater participation in the program, the Government Accountability Office urged the Energy Department to revise the fees charged to “high-income” countries to return U.S.-origin spent HEU and LEU fuel. Such fees — about $4,500 per kilogram of highly enriched uranium and from $3,750 to $4,500 per kilogram of low-enriched uranium — have covered about 85 percent of the program’s cost since they were established in 1996. The report recommends that the fees charged to high-income countries to return highly enriched uranium be reduced. In exchange, fees charged to recover low-enriched uranium, which poses less of a proliferation risk, from research reactors in those countries should be increased to help cover the cost of the final disposal of such material in the United States. The LEU acceptance fees should not be increased, though, to point of creating disincentives for foreign research reactors to convert from HEU to LEU use, the report says.
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