The Los Alamos National Laboratory has begun a program to examine the potential for converting weapon-grade plutonium into nuclear power plant fuel, the Associated Press reported Wednesday (see GSN, May 9).

The Los Alamos program would involve purifying 140 kilograms of plutonium oxide as a precursor to creating “lead test assemblies” for a pilot mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel program at a nuclear power plant in North Carolina, according to the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration.

The program, expected to begin in November, is meant to “test and validate that MOX will perform as expected in reactors,” NNSA spokeswoman Lisa Cutler said.

The Bush administration has begun planning a MOX production facility at the Savannah River site in South Carolina (see GSN, June 19).  Construction of the facility is expected to begin next year, according to a statement from Duke Cogema Stone & Webster — a consortium that Energy has hired to build the MOX production plant.

Critics have attacked the plan over concerns that it might lead to an increase in plutonium shipments, according to AP.  The program blurs lines between civilian and military uses of nuclear power, said Lou Zeller, spokesman for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

“In this country, for a long time, there has been a distinct line between military and civilian uses of nuclear power,” Zeller said.  “The plutonium program that the DOE has right now blurs that line and reduces security in this nation and all around the world” (Associated Press, June 19).

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