PERILS OF CLINCH RIVER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87R00029R000300480025-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 6, 2009
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: December 9, 1982
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2009/05/06: CIA-RDP87R00029R000300480025-8
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Conservative groups join the old enemies of the breeder
reactor in a strike on DOE's budget
Even as the bulldozers began clearing
a place for the breeder reactor along the
banks of the Clinch River in Tennessee
this September, congressional oppo-
nents were saying they would kill the
project in the final days of the 97th
Congress, if only they could get their
hands on an appropriations bill.
The bulldozers went to work on 22
September, immediately after an appeals
court judge in Atlanta overruled a lower
court's order halting construction. Law-
yers for an environmental group ob-
tained the order on grounds that an im-
pact statement had not been prepared
properly. The Atlanta judged brushed
the complaint aside and allowed work to
resume.
Meanwhile, a coalition of House mem-
bers led by Representative Claudine
Schneider (R-R.I.) tried to carry on what
has become an annual ritual of bashing
the breeder. (Last year the Senate came
within two votes of canceling it.)
Schneider hoped to get a crack at it when
funds for energy and water projects
came before the House. But in the same
week the bulldozers moved, the House
put off the appropriations debate until
after the election. Members voted to
fund all federal projects at their present
levels through 15 December by means of
a continuing resolution. No amendments
were allowed.
Another group is trying to stop the
breeder in the Senate, where a vote on
the continuing resolution is scheduled to
take place as Science goes to press.
There the antibreeder campaign is being
led by conservative Republican Gordon
Humphrey (N.H.) and Democrats Dale
Bumpers (Ark.), Gary Hart (Colo.), and
Paul Tsongas (Mass.). Two proposals
are being offered. One would simply kill
the breeder. The other would require the
nuclear industry to finance half the de-
velopment costs, as was originally
planned in the early 1970's.
If these fail, it is possible that another
debate on the breeder will occur in De-
cember, when Congress returns for a
lame-duck session to vote on money bills
the President wants this year. As one
House staffer said, "The leadership can
put us off once, but on something this
controversial, they have to allow a vote
eventually."
Advocates of the breeder are on the
defensive this year, perhaps more so Congress. Now the conservatives would
than in the past, because of a couple of like to exact a tax of their own by killing
changes in the political and economic what they regard as a pork-barrel project
situation. Most important, a group of in Baker's own state. Baker has pre-
well-organized conservatives has begun served the breeder against earlier at-
calling for an end to federal subsidies. tacks; it remains to be seen whether he
Over $1 billion in federal dollars have can fight off another sally led from within
nothing much to show for it. Finishing One of the strafe ists
of the
nti-
r
a
the project could cost another $2.6 bil- breeder cmpaanin the Senate is Henry
lion, if the Department of Energy (DOE) oS` k lski, formerly~a visiting scholarr at
is to be believed. Or it may cost as much the Heritage Foundation, now member
as $7.5 billion more, if all the elements of of Senator - Humphrey's staff. He dis-
a new estimate issued by the General sses the anti-Baker aspect of the quar-
Accounting Office on 24 September are rel, although he does not deny that it
added. It includes $3.9 billion of imputed exists. More important, he says, is the
interest to reflect the cost of borrowing fact that the breeder embodies the sort of
money when the budget is in deficit, ill-conceived, expensive, and unneces-
Other methods of. projecting costs pro- sary federal extravagance that conserva-
duce higher figures. Representative tives abhor. It is coincidental that on this
Richard Ottinger (D-N.Y.) believes the occasion he shares the platform with
true future cost is between $5 and $7.7 antinuclear activists. Sokolski, who
billion. claims to be helping the industry, argues
The conservative Heritage Foundation that if the antinukes were clever, they
has teamed up with the Taxpayer's would try to keep the breeder going a
Onion and environmental groups in argu- few more years. It has become an alba-
ing that the money is being wasted. How tross, he thinks.
did this odd coalition come into being? Anot er c ange that has damaged the
Th
e story circulating this summer was
that conservatives were looking for a
way topunish Howard Baker (R Tenn.),
the moderate leader of the Senate. He
angered the right wing of his party when
he pushed the 1982 tax increase through
Making room for the 21st century
breeder's prospects is the collapsing de-
mand for energy, brought on by the
global economic recession. Coal, oil, and
uranium are in abundant supply and
prices are coming down. The spot mar-
ket price of a pound of U308, for exam-
Workman clears wilderness site for the Clinch River plutonium breeder reactor.
00 3680 75/8 2/1 008-0 1 3 75o1-0t-?0 Copynght t: 1982 AAAS
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The go\crnnrenI bec:in hunt It;, the portfolio.
breeder more than 10 year, ago on the Some astute critics in Congress have
premise that it boom in the demand lot tried to show that it is possible to invest
nuclear power would create a shortage of in advanced nuclear systems without
uranium fuel. The breeder would pro- splurging on this particular demonstra-
duce more fuel (plutonium-239) than it Lion project. The breeder can come later,
used, and was envisioned as an allcrna- they say. Representative Ottinger made
Live energy source to be tapped when a survey of some alternative prospects in
uranium prices reached a high level. hearings last October (Uranium E,jficien-
Like the market in which synfuels are cy Improvements, House Energy and
supposed to be competitive with natural Commerce Committee, publication 97-
oil, the situation in which breeder fuel 94). Among other things, he learned of
becomes competitive with uranium has DOE-funded research indicating that
been an elusive and ever-receding vi- light water reactor cores may be altered
sion. Recent studies have estimated that slightly to extend the life of uranium fuel.
the "breakeven price" for a pound of Technology now within reach could re-
uranium and breeder viability is between duce spent fuel output by 40 percent and
$120 and $280 in 1980 dollars. The DOE cut uranium demand by 15 percent. As
estimates that the price of uranium fuel though to confirm this potential saving,
will only be $48 in .1995. And a recent Westinghouse announced in July that it
Congressional Research Service review has joined with Mitsubishi and five Japa-
of the technical literature concluded: nese utilities to design and build an ad-
"Recent analyses would seem to indi- vanced pressurized water reactor using
cate that it is quite unlikely that breeder 20 to 25 percent less uranium. The
reactors will be economic before 2020, French nuclear program is aiming for
but there is a reasonable probability that similar, but not quite as great efficien-
they may become economic within 20 cies. Thus Ottinger was surprised to find
years after that date."* Thus, as fuel that the Administration this year re-
prices deflate, the rationale for the quested a cut from $13 to $4 million in
breeder deflates with them. the DOE's research budget in this area.
The Administration's policy for fund- The cut has been reversed in the House
ing technical projects, as explained by Appropriations Committee, which set
presidential science adviser George the funding level at $15 million. The
Keyworth, is to reserve support for eco- issue will come to a vote when the ener-
nomically promising, innovative re- gy and water appropriations bill comes
search only. To the extent that cuts must up in December.
be made, they will be focused on demon- As the likelihood of a uranium short-
stration projects, which are designed to age becomes more remote, the benefits
move a concept out of the laboratory of the breeder seem less attractive, espe-
into a commercial setting. cially in light of the high initial invest-
The paradox of the breeder is that it is ment costs
S
.
upporters of the breeder
a demonstration project for which no these days tend to stress its value as an
commercial setting exists. The concept asset to national security. Other nations
has been established and continues to be are beginning to work on commercial
researched at the DOE's Fast Flux Test plutonium reactors, and so, it is argued,
Facility in Hanford, Washington. The the United States cannot afford to fall
debate now centers on the issue of when, behind. Even this argument is being un-
if ever, there will be a market ready to dermined by changed circumstances.
incorporate the breeder. As now con- The German consortium for funding the
ceived, the reactor will require many Kalkar breeder has come apart, and the
ancillary services -(plutonium fuel fabri- Bundestag must decide soon whether to
cation plants, spent fuel processors, and increase the federal subsidy or let the
new safeguards against diversion of sup- project die. The French program, often
plies to weapons makers), none of which cited as an example of what the United
are in existence. Their costs are un- States could do, has run into financial
known, although some recent analyses, problems. French electric rates are due
including Ottinger's, try to incorporate a to rise sharply this year (by about 30
figure for them. percent), and the backlash is expected to
Thus the breeder appears vulnerable. take its toll among the more speculative
But President Reagan has made it plain projects, like the Super-Phenix breeder.
that he intends to invest in a nuclear The overall impact of these changes is
'The Economic competitiveness of Breeder Reac- to make this year's vote the most dif3i-
tors Compared to Light water Reactors." by Robert cult test yet for the Clinch River breed-
L. Civiak. Congressional Research Service. 13 Sep-
tember 1982. er.-ELIOT MARSHALL
ICSU Accepts China
and Psychology
The International Council of Scien-
tific Unions (ICSU) has finally recog-
nized Psychology as a legitimate sci-
entific discipline. It has also found a
way to admit the People's Republic of
China into its fold without severing ties
with Taiwan.
ICSU, which is regarded as the
world's premier international scientific
organization, took these two steps at
its meeting last month in Cambridge,
England. Both were preceded by
years of negotiation.
Psychologists have been trying to
join ICSU for more than a quarter-
century, but their organization, the In-
ternational Union of Psychological
Science, has had its application re-
jected several times.
They got a foot in the door 2 years
ago, when ICSU granted the psychol-
ogy union second-class status as a
scientific associate. This year, they
tried again for full membership, and
finally won approval. But it wasn't
easy. The admissions committee
spent an hour probing the scientific
basis of modern psychology before
passing the application along to the
general assembly. Neither the com-
mittee vote nor the general assembly
vote was unanimous, according to
Mark Rosenzweig, professor of psy-
chology at the University of California
at Berkeley, who represented the psy-
chologists' union at the meeting. In
contrast, the International Union' of
Microbiological Societies was accept-
ed without opposition.
One tangible result of the election is
that the International Union of Psy-
chological Science has had to change
its acronym to IUPsyS to avoid confu-
sion with the International Union of
Physiological Sciences.
As for China's membership, a for-
mula has been sought since 1972 to
bring the People's Republic of China
into ICSU without abandoning Tai-
wan, a longtime member. This year, a
compromise was finally reached. The
Chinese Association of Science and
Technology, from Beijing, was elected
to membership, while the Taiwan
Academy of Science remains a full
voting member. One potential result is
that Chinese scientific societies will
now be accepted more readily as
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