INFCE Status Report (Carter. NLC-7-31-7-16-6)

This document contains a US assessment of the outcomes of INFCE.

The conventional view within the U.S. INFCE bureaucracy has been that the outcome will bo mixed? That we will lose ground on some important points, but these losses will be balanced by some important gains. Under this "win-some, lose-some" appraisal, the balance sheet for INFCE's main conclusions looks something like this:

US gains

• Economic advantages of thermal recycle acknowledged as marginal.
• Downplays LDC needs for reprocessing and breeders.
• Spent fuel disposal technically feasible; no waste-disposal advantage in reprocessing,
• Agreement on lowering enrichment levels for research reactors. (C)

US losses

• Grossly exaggerated nuclear growth forecasts.(c)
• Future uranium availability seriously underestimated. (c)
• Strong economic case for breeder
• Proliferation risks of Pu recycle and breeders minimized? close to saying all fuel cycles are equal.(c)
• Safeguards and vague w institutional measures" seen as adequate answer. (Cj