Nuclear Power
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership: A Threat to Human Life and Health
February 2009
Robert Gould, M.D., Peter Wilk, M.D., and Jill M. Parillo Physicians for Social Responsibility
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership: A Threat to Human Life and Health Summary The Bush Administration’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) would increase waste storage and proliferation concerns arising from the use and projected expansion of nuclear energy by legitimizing the use of reprocessing and enrichment technologies. GNEP is one of many fuel cycle initiatives in the global arena that aim to manage the spread of dual-use (energy and weapon) technology. GNEP plans to restart nuclear waste reprocessing in the United States and increase nuclear enrichment and reprocessing capacities abroad through the commercial use of these dual-use technologies. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) opposes a revival of nuclear waste reprocessing in the United States or its commercialization abroad. Reprocessing threatens human health by increasing the level of radioactivity in the environment and threatens human life by increasing stockpiles of weapons-usable plutonium. The National Research Council’s Committee on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) published seven reports since 1956 regarding radiation exposures. The latest report demonstrates that even very low levels of exposure to radiation can lead to cancer. No sustainable safe storage solutions exist for the current stockpile of more than 50,000 tons of commercially generated nuclear waste at 72 domestic sites. Reprocessing will exacerbate these problems and, surrounding communities will be at risk of exposure to low levels of radiation. Reprocessing does not recycle nuclear waste, but separates it into different waste streams and increases the total volume of nuclear waste to be disposed of by a factor of twenty or greater. The Department of Energy (DOE) proposed classifying most of this waste stream as low
February 2009
Robert Gould, M.D., Peter Wilk, M.D., and Jill M. Parillo Physicians for Social Responsibility
The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership: A Threat to Human Life and Health Summary The Bush Administration’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) would increase waste storage and proliferation concerns arising from the use and projected expansion of nuclear energy by legitimizing the use of reprocessing and enrichment technologies. GNEP is one of many fuel cycle initiatives in the global arena that aim to manage the spread of dual-use (energy and weapon) technology. GNEP plans to restart nuclear waste reprocessing in the United States and increase nuclear enrichment and reprocessing capacities abroad through the commercial use of these dual-use technologies. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) opposes a revival of nuclear waste reprocessing in the United States or its commercialization abroad. Reprocessing threatens human health by increasing the level of radioactivity in the environment and threatens human life by increasing stockpiles of weapons-usable plutonium. The National Research Council’s Committee on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) published seven reports since 1956 regarding radiation exposures. The latest report demonstrates that even very low levels of exposure to radiation can lead to cancer. No sustainable safe storage solutions exist for the current stockpile of more than 50,000 tons of commercially generated nuclear waste at 72 domestic sites. Reprocessing will exacerbate these problems and, surrounding communities will be at risk of exposure to low levels of radiation. Reprocessing does not recycle nuclear waste, but separates it into different waste streams and increases the total volume of nuclear waste to be disposed of by a factor of twenty or greater. The Department of Energy (DOE) proposed classifying most of this waste stream as low