Nuclear fuel reprocessing and high-level waste disposal. Interim report

This is a critique and a minority dissent from the California Energy Commission's interim report on nuclear fuel reprocessing and high-level waste disposal. The report contains no clear recommendations to the Legislature. Fourteen months after passage of the California nuclear legislation, the Commission has yet to interpret the language of the legislation. Where the law calls for an examination of the existence and Federal approval of technology, the Commission is too concerned with Federal timetables for construction and licensing of facilities. The interim report fails to advise the Legislature of the consequences of a nuclear moratorium. Other inadequacies of the interim report are pointed out. It is recommended that the Legislature consider removing the requirement that reprocessing technology must be found to exist and be approved before an LWR can be certified, and that it undertake an assessment of the effect a nuclear moratorium would have on California's ability to meet its future electricity needs