A. EIS Scoping Meetings: We Need You!

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold public meetings to receive input on the scope of the forthcoming Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the direct, indirect and cumulative environmental impacts associated with the construction, operation and deactivation of the MOX fuel fabrication facility at Savannah River Site (SRS). Your participation is important! Meetings are:

April 17, 2001
North Augusta Community Center
496 Brookside Drive
North Augusta, SC

April 18, 2001
Coastal Georgia Center
305 Martin Luther King Blvd
Savannah, GA

(A third meeting may be held in Charlotte, NC at the end of April, but was not confirmed at press time.)

Both meetings run 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. YOU MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE: call Betty Garrett, 301-415-5808, or email bsg@nrc.gov.

Southeast anti-MOX organizations will hold informational pre-meetings to help participants prepare. Contact Don Moniak of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League for the North Augusta pre-meeting, and Sara Barczak of Georgians for Clean Energy for the Savannah pre-meeting.

Participation is important! Not only does it show the level of concern about the proposed MOX program, it is an opportunity to comment on what issues are covered in the EIS. Ask your friends, colleagues, family, and state representatives to join you!

If you can't attend the meetings, you can submit comments BY MAY 21st by mail, fax, or email:

Mail:
Mike Lesar, Acting Chief
US NRC, Rules and Diectives Branch
Division of Administrative Services
Office of Administration
Mail Stop T6D59, Washington, D.C. 20555

Fax: 301-415-5398 Attn: Tim Harris
Email: teh@nrc.gov

After comments are received, a Scoping Process Summary Report will be sent to all participants in the process. The draft EIS is due Feb. 2002.

MORE INFORMATION:

• What is a scoping meeting, anyway?
  See http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/nepa/regs/scope/scoping.htm for more info.
  (Thanks to Terry Lodge for this link.)

• NRC factsheet on the MOX EIS scoping process:
  www.nrc.gov/NRC/NMSS/MOX/factsheets3_5.pdf (80k PDF file requires Adobe Acrobat Reader), or for a faxed copy, contact mox@wand.org.

B. Other Opportunities for Action

1. Protest MOX at NRC Meeting: April 16th, Atlanta
   NRC Staff Mtg. open to public. Meeting topic: Performance at Catawba Nuclear Station
   1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
   NRC Region II Office, 61 Forsyth St., SW, Suite 24T20, Atlanta

   This meeting is a self-assessment of performance presented to NRC by the Catawba site vice president. Catawba is one of two nuclear stations slated for weapons MOX use.

2. Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Days (Washington, DC)
   
   • Trainings and workshops, including information on MOX
     
   • Three days of meetings with Members of Congress and key Administration officials
     
   • Pizza party / award reception / Excellent networking opportunity

   Info. & registration: www.ananuclear.org
   Jim Bridgeman: 202-833-4668 * jcbridgman@earthlink.net

3. Action for Peace
   April 7-8, 2001
   Y-12 nuclear weapon plant, Oak Ridge, TN
   Workshops, rallies, fellowship, direct action.

   The Oak Ridge site is planning a $4 billion upgrade to continue nuclear weapons production activities. The site is also involved in various aspects of the MOX program.
   www.stopthebombs.org/calendar/AprilAction2001.html

4. Petition against Price Anderson Act
   www.petitiononline.com/repealpa/petition.html

   Price Anderson protects the nuclear industry from financial responsibility in case of an accident, but fails to provide adequate protection to the public. Utilities using MOX increase accident risks. Price Anderson is up for reauthorization - this petition calls for its repeal.
   More info. on Price Anderson: www.geocities.com/priceanderson/

C. MOX and the Energy Crisis

New legislation in Washington (S 388 and S 389 from Sen. Murkowski and S 472 from Sen. Domenici) attempts to use current energy problems in the US to leverage support for the use of plutonium as fuel in nuclear reactors (that means MOX). The Bush Administration is expected to release similar proposals in early April.

To find out more and learn what you can do, see:
www.nirs.org (Nuclear Information and Resource Service)
or
www.citizen.org/CMEP/nuclearsafety/nuclearsafetycurrent.html
(Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program)

D. GA Sierra Club Passes Anti-MOX Resolution

On Feb. 27 the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club passed a resolution opposing MOX! Now it's time for other chapters to follow suit! If you are a Sierra Club member, please consider requesting that your local chapter pass this (or a similar) resolution.

Excerpt:

Full text: http://georgia.sierraclub.org/nltr/articles_1.html

(Thanks to Susan Bloomfield of GA Sierra Club.)

A. Immobilization Gets the Axe

Citing Bush Administration budget cuts, the Dept. of Energy (DOE) on March 19th zeroed out funding for the plutonium immobilization program and canceled the contract for construction of the immobilization facility, thus delaying the program indefinitely. The decision signals an apparent abandoning of the "dual-track" program for disposing of surplus weapons plutonium, leaving the DOE with no back-up plan for the technically unproven MOX option.

The DOE had planned on the immobilization option for some 17 tons of surplus weapons plutonium deemed too impure for MOX use. (The "immobilization option" refers to processing plutonium into a ceramic form and encasing it in highly radioactive glass.) Immobilization funds will now be shifted to MOX.

For safety and proliferation reasons, many environmental groups preferred immobilization over MOX and advocated its use for all 50 tons of US surplus plutonium. The DOE, however, is reported to be considering reprocessing the 17 tons of impure plutonium so that it could be used as MOX fuel.

The decision drew criticism from South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, though safety and proliferation concerns were conspicuously absent in his letter to DOE which advocated increased funding for both MOX and the SRS reprocessing canyons.

The semi-autonomous and secretive National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which houses the plutonium disposition program, explained the decision to de-fund immobilization with a profoundly vague and unenlightening announcement stating, "...we are continuing with the MOX facility design and construction --- but are opting to look at other aspects, such as the Immobilization Facility, in possible future budget cycles." (For more on this non-statement, contact Darwin J. Morgan, NNSA Public Affairs, 202-586-7554.)

Cuts in Funding to Russia
Other nonproliferation programs have been targeted by the Bush Administration, including US support for plutonium disposition in Russia. As reported in the industry publication "Energy Daily," administration officials suggested funding for Russian plutonium disposition could be sharply reduced or even eliminated. Reduction of US support of the program would deal a serious blow to Russian MOX plans -- anticipated funding from other western nations in the G-8 economic group has not been forthcoming, as hoped by DOE and the US State Department.

MORE INFORMATION:
"Energy agency halts site project"
http://augustachronicle.com/stories/032001/met_066-5212.000.shtml

"Thurmond presses for SRS project funds"
http://www.nci.org/wpu-immob-thurmond-co32501.htm

B. License Application Update

On February 28, the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility Construction Authorization Request (CAR) was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by Duke-Cogema-Stone & Webster (DCS), the consortium contracted by DOE for the US MOX program.

The NRC has 30 days to review the document before formal acceptance. Upon acceptance, a notice about hearings on the license request will be posted in the Federal Register. Anyone wanting to intervene in the licensing process would have 30 days from the time of that notice to submit contentions on the application. Georgians Against Nuclear Energy (GANE) is planning on intervening (see earlier Nix MOX Bulletins for more information or contact Glenn Carroll at atom.girl@mindspring.com.)

Actual copies of the document are hard to come by -- the NRC will either charge you for the privilege of reviewing it either in hard copy or on CD, or you can spend literally dozens of hours downloading it from their website.

A better option is to contact the industrious Don Moniak of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League who has downloaded the entire document (plus extras) and can provide copies on CD (donations to cover costs accepted).

MORE INFORMATION:
NRC website on MOX licensing process: www.nrc.gov/NRC/NMSS/MOX/index.html

C. Meeting on MOX and High Burnup Fuel

On Wed. April 4, the NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Subcommittee on Reactor Fuels will meet to discuss the safety issues associated with the use of MOX and high burnup fuel. The meeting is open to the public, oral comments will be allowed with permission of the Subcommittee Chair, written comments will be accepted and made available to the Committee.

8:30 a.m. until completion
NRC Headquarters: 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD
Room T-2B3

For further information, permission to present oral statements, changes in meeting time or location, agenda adjustment, etc. contact ACRS staff engineer, Dr. Medhat El-Zeftawy, 301-415-6889 (between 7:30 and 4:15, eastern).

MORE INFORMATION:

• This meeting (agenda, etc.):
  www.nrc.gov/ACRS/rrs1/agendas_ACRS/Agenda_RF_010404.html

• Minutes of past ACRS meetings:
  www.nrc.gov/ACRS/rrs1/Trans_Let/index_top/ACRS_transcripts/ghindex.html
  Enter "MOX" in search field.