Live Blogging the GNEP Hearing

David Mulna, president of HAMTEC, all the requirement DOE needs for GNEP are already here. The money is already spent. Touts the Hanford safety record. strong labor and management partnership. GNEP would really be important for the work force and the economy.

Chris Johnson, tri-city regional Chamber of Commerce, a supporter of GNEP, more of the previous points. I-297, has legal problems, supremacy clause and Atomic Energy Act. a win-win solution for DOE and the community.

Warren Zesiger, Benton County Farm Bureau, supports GNEP and restart of FFTF, other higher orgs support FFTF. Farmers are affected by cancer. basically on the basis of medical isotopes. there are lots of dangers that dwarf the dangers of nuclear power. Why concentrate wastes at yet another site in the country?

Robert Gillette, not here

Robert Beech, an ex-Navy submariner. Nuclear programs have increased the standards of living around the world. We threw away the closed-cycle foolishly. We should be developing energy instead of destroying capacity if we intend to be a world leader. Destroying FFTF to build another one elsewhere does not make sense. GNEP must be a national program. place a moratorium on decomm FFTF. We should consider the shipping among the GNEP facilities.

Mike Corinco, past VP of Westinghouse Hanford, helped with a precursor to GNEP. some things done not commonly known. There are many other processing technologies that could really reduce waste. Had a test of clean use of reactor energy. able to transmute Technicium-99 to non-radioactive material. sees nuke waste as an asset. recommends an accelerator with GNEP for better isotope production. Could be used to transmute existing Hanford waste. recommends dividing program into 2 phases. a demo facility using local wastes, then scale up to a regional facility.
'
Rick Gold, Eugenite, waste would have to travel here, his authority is "they say". They say people would die on the road from waste shipments. thinks GNEP is a jobs program. thinks the stall in court of I-297 his because of DOE instead of being just a bad law. broad, inaccurate characterization.

break

Bridget Smith

Martin Binski