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NRC Approves Building MOX Plant in United States
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday approved plans for building a South Carolina plant to convert weapon-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear power reactors, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported (see GSN, March 23). The $1 billion facility to produce mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) is being built as part of a U.S.-Russian agreement to eliminate 34 tons of plutonium from each nation’s nuclear arsenal (see related GSN story, today). Preparatory work is expected to begin this year at the Savannah River Site, the Journal-Constitution reported. Full construction should begin next year. The Energy Department also plans two additional buildings at Savannah River to support the conversion effort. One would be used to remove the plutonium from the weapons, while the other would process most of the nuclear waste from the conversion (Charles Seabrook, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 31). Critics of the MOX plant said the NRC decision undermines nuclear nonproliferation efforts and does not ensure that the plutonium disposal program will move forward. “Efforts to create an infrastructure to process and introduce weapons-grade plutonium into commerce will further undermine global efforts to halt proliferation of nuclear materials,” Tom Clements, Greenpeace nuclear campaign senior adviser, said in a statement. “Proceeding with this program sends the wrong nuclear nonproliferation signal to those aspiring to obtain nuclear weapons materials.” The U.S. MOX program is meant to “proceed in parallel” with its Russian counterpart, Clements said. Lack of funding, interest and a liability agreement has stalled the Russian program, meaning the U.S. effort also could not move forward, he argued (Greenpeace, March 31). Meanwhile, two administrative judges in Tennessee have backed an NRC staff decision to allow a company to convert weapon-grade highly enriched uranium into low-enriched fuel, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Feb. 24). Nuclear Fuel Services has already started converting 39 metric tons of the uranium at its Erwin plant for use at the Tennessee Valley Authority Browns Ferry nuclear reactor in Alabama, according to AP. The Sierra Club had sought a complete environmental impact statement for the project. “There is simply no basis in the record at hand for a determination on our part that the staff’s environmental review failed adequately to consider the possibility of the occurrence of an accident with serious environmental consequences,” Judges Alan Rosenthal and Richard Cole wrote in their decision. The Sierra Club can appeal the decision to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Associated Press/MyrtleBeachOnline.com, March 3).
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