Washington, D.C.  – Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici today joined with the directors of Department of Energy national laboratories from around the nation to promote a program intended to accelerate the use of nuclear energy to ease global demand for fossil fuels.
 
Domenici welcomed the solid and united showing of lab directors, including Tom Hunter of Sandia National Laboratories and Robert Kuckuck of Los Alamos National Laboratory, for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).
 
GNEP establishes reliable fuel services to provide reactor fuel for developing countries that forego indigenous enrichment and reprocessing facilities.  The goal behind the program is to provide nuclear power to developing nations without spreading sensitive fuel cycle technology or increasing proliferation threats.  GNEP is accelerating the work of the national laboratories to develop the technologies and engineering-scale facilities for eventual commercialization. 
 
Nine national laboratories are working together to develop program and technology plans that will guide technology development efforts. Sandia is expected to provide lead-on reactors, and security and safeguards to prevent proliferation.  LANL is expected to play a major role in advanced reactor fuels, as well as reprocessing and reactor technology.

 “DOE and its national laboratories exist to develop technology options for our most challenging national problems,” Domenici said.  “U.S. energy security is one of our most significant challenges.  There is no single silver bullet that will solve all our energy needs.  Many are upset with high gas prices today but are unwilling to support measures that provide a mix of options for our future.”

“I believe technology at our laboratories holds answers that must be pursued aggressively if we are to achieve greater energy independence at home and around the world,” he said.  “We must move aggressively with new nuclear power today to assure sustainable electricity for the future as China, India, and many other countries are now doing.”

Domenici said he is encouraged by 37 expressions of interest from communities, companies and partnerships that would consider being potential sites advanced recycling technologies demonstrations.

“Some have argued that the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership does nothing in the near term to provide energy security.  But I believe, as our past has demonstrated, that we must start now so that 10 years from now the United States has options that it can now only dream of.  This initiative provides options for our energy future,” Domenici said.

The Bush administration requested $250 million in FY2007, a $90 million increase over FY2006, for GNEP and an advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (ACFI).  Domenici, as chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, has addressed the GNEP issue in several hearings this year related to developing the FY2007 DOE budget and advancing nuclear energy initiatives included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Directors or deputy directors from the following labs attended Tuesday’s GNEP event on Capitol Hill:  Sandia, LANL, Idaho National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Savannah River National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.