The Tennessee Valley Authority announced today that it has signed an agreement to work with the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop and exchange information about new ways to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.

Staff Photo by Dan Henry -- TVA will work with the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop and exchange information about new ways to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.

The memorandum of understanding signed by TVA and DOE officials earlier this week is part of an initiative President Bush launched in 2006 to recycle nuclear fuel to produce more energy, cut nuclear wastes and not generate plutonium usable for nuclear weapons.

Dennis Spurgeon, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, said the agreement with TVA will further ongoing research with DOE national laboratories to determine how to best develop the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership for reprocessing more nuclear fuel.

“We look forward to gaining valuable knowledge and experience in working with TVA to advance the goals of GNEP and expand clean, safe nuclear power,” Mr. Spurgeon said.

TVA, a federally owned utility that operates six nuclear reactors and is building another unit at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, “is in a unique position to look for ways to improve how nuclear fuel could be managed,” TVA Chief Operating Officer Bill McCollum said.

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.