Key DOE environmental review of plan to use weapons plutonium as mixed oxide reactor fuel delayed again, signaling problems as options being assessed

Friends of the Earth: Mixed oxide fuel is ‘massive waste’ of tax dollars and must be terminated

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy has once again failed to meet its schedule on the release of a key environmental document on the review of use of plutonium fuel in commercial nuclear power reactors owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority. 

After multiple delays since January, the release of the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on Mixed Oxide fuel made from surplus weapons plutonium, known as MOX, had finally been set for July, but, as Friends of the Earth anticipated, DOE has again failed to publicly release the document. 

In DOE’s fiscal year 2014 budget request to Congress, the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration said “Current [U.S.] plutonium disposition approach may be unaffordable … due to cost growth and fiscal pressure” and that the Obama administration “will assess the feasibility of alternative plutonium disposition strategies.” Given this affirmation that DOE will review alternative plutonium disposition strategies, Friends of the Earth and more than a dozen other public interest groups wrote to then Secretary of Energy Steven Chu in May and asked that no final environmental statement be issued. While DOE never formally responded to Friends of the Earth’s request, their failure to issue the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on schedule underscores the grave problems with the MOX program.

La evaluación de las alternativas de disposición indica que el DOE considera incompleta la revisión ambiental actual y que no se publicará un "Registro de Decisión", que formalmente incorporaría las conclusiones en la Declaración de Impacto Ambiental Suplementaria. "La falta de emisión de los documentos ambientales significa que aún no se ha tomado una decisión oficial para implementar el MOX en los reactores de la TVA, lo cual es un claro indicio de que la TVA se ha mostrado reticente a ser obligada a participar en el controvertido y peligroso programa de MOX", declaró Tom Clements, coordinador de la campaña nuclear del sureste de Amigos de la Tierra. "La falta de compromiso de la TVA con el uso de MOX y la revisión de las alternativas de disposición de plutonio por parte de la Administración Nacional de Seguridad Nuclear (NSA) significan que el programa de MOX debe finalizarse de inmediato y que se deben considerar otras opciones".“

The cost of building the MOX plant at DOE’s Savannah River site in South Carolina has soared from $1.8 billion in 2004 to $7.7 billion in 2013. Rumors from inside DOE indicate that the actual cost could be closer to $10 billion. Efforts to get MOX costs under control have failed and no customers have applied to use the plutonium fuel. More efficient options for managing plutonium must be pursued.  MOX made from weapons-grade plutonium has never been produced or used on a commercial scale, presenting major challenges to DOE.

“DOE’s continuing delay of the environmental impact statement on the ill-advised MOX fuel scheme demonstrates that after almost a decade of throwing money at an unproven idea, DOE still can’t show significant progress,” said Katherine Fuchs, nuclear subsidies campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “The massive waste of tax dollars on this mismanaged program should be ended and cheaper, safer, quicker alternatives for disposing of weapons plutonium should be immediately pursued.” 

It is believed that a senior advisor to Secretary of Energy Moniz is coordinating the plutonium disposition alternatives assessment and possible alternate uses of the partially completed MOX plant. The advisor recently traveled to the Savannah River Site to discuss plutonium disposition issues.

Arms Control Today, the influential magazine for policy experts and decision-makers on nuclear proliferation issues, features a cover article in its July/August 2103 about the status of the troubled U.S. program to dispose of surplus weapons plutonium. The questions the current disposition strategy centered on plutonium fuel production and presents various cheaper and safer options for plutonium disposal.

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Notas:
Sitio web de la NNSA on Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement

De la página S-IV del borrador de la evaluación ambiental:
“La TVA no tiene una alternativa preferida en este momento respecto a si se debe continuar con la irradiación del combustible MOX en los reactores de la TVA y qué reactores podrían usarse para este propósito”.”

DOE schedule of the release of key environmental documents, from the Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance, July 15

Contacto:
Katherine Fuchs, (202) 222-0723, [email protected]
Tom Clements, (803) 834-3084 o (803) 240-7268