U.S. Begins Building Plutonium Conversion Plant

Construction began yesterday on a South Carolina facility designed to convert weapon-grade plutonium into civilian nuclear reactor fuel, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced (see GSN, July 20).

The Savannah River Site facility is intended to convert at least 34 metric tons of plutonium into mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear reactor fuel to be used in North and South Carolina nuclear power plants.  That is enough material for 8,500 nuclear weapons, the agency said.

The United States is building the facility to fulfill a 2000 nonproliferation pact with Russia under which the nations promised to each covert 34 metric tons of plutonium.

Construction of the MOX plant “marks a major top forward in our efforts with Russia to dispose of surplus weapon-grade plutonium so that it can never be used again for nuclear weapons,” William Tobey, the agency’s nonproliferation chief, said in a release (National Nuclear Security Administration release, Aug. 1).

One nonproliferation think tank called on the Energy Department to hold off on building the facility unless officials agree to place the site under international monitoring.

Withholding the plans from the International Atomic Energy Agency undermines U.S. credibility on nonproliferation issues, said Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists in a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

The United States must “set the gold standard for safeguards and security” and an international review of the facility plans would be a “powerful symbol” of nuclear transparency and equity, Lyman said (Union of Concerned Scientists release, Aug. 1). 

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