Rep. Jean Schmidt: "A Piketon Update"

Via email:

Washington , DC - One of the biggest challenges that public officials face is separating facts from rhetoric. A while back, handbills were distributed and phone calls made claiming that I supported a nuclear waste dump at the Department of Energy's facility at Piketon. In fact, quite the opposite is true. I will be introducing legislation this week that will prevent such a thing from ever happening at the Piketon Plant.

The confusion centered around a proposal for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant -- more commonly known as the Piketon Plant -- located in Pike County . The proposed study is part of the Department of Energy's new program known as "GNEP," which stands for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).

GNEP is a program that plans to recycle spent fuel rods and convert them to new fuel for our nation's nuclear power plants. GNEP holds promise for revitalizing nuclear power in the United States , increasing our national security, and reducing nuclear waste in our environment.

In the United States , nuclear power provides one-fifth of our electricity and reduces the annual release of millions of tons of CO2 emissions. Nuclear power will continue to play a significant role in meeting our energy needs. The major draw back to nuclear power is the waste. Spent fuel rods are to be stored in Yucca Mountain , which is located in Nevada , once construction of the waste storage site is completed. The GNEP recycling program will allow us to reduce both the volume of waste at the Yucca Mountain site and the radioactivity of that waste.

The Department of Energy's Piketon facility currently houses a uranium-enrichment facility - the American Centrifuge Project. Soon all of the nuclear fuel made in America will be enriched at the Piketon Plant. The plant has a long and proud history of enriching uranium.

With the full support of the local unions, local elected officials, and businesses, community leaders have submitted a proposal to add the GNEP project to the Piketon facility's responsibilities. In fact, Piketon has been chosen as one of eleven sites the Department of Energy is reviewing. Billions of dollars of investment and thousands of jobs will go to the final site selected.

Some have mischaracterized dramatically the proposed GNEP project. They use rhetoric describing the program as a plan to put a nuclear waste dump at Piketon. Yucca Mountain is the repository for nuclear waste in the Untied States and no one is trying to alter that. My legislation makes that point crystal clear. Under my legislation it would be illegal for the government to build a so called GNEP nuclear waste dump at Piketon.

I don't know if Piketon will be selected. The GNEP competition is fierce. I do know there will be no nuclear waste dump constructed in Piketon or anywhere else in the Second Congressional District. I will continue to keep you updated on the proposed GNEP project.

Nate Noy, The Whistleblower and Vic Wulsin ride again...