On March 21st, NRC's Spent Fuel Project Office met with Packaging Technology, Inc., designer of the container that would be used to transport unirradiated MOX fuel assemblies. The container will be a new design, about 2 ½ feet in diameter, 14 feet long, and weighing 15,000 pounds when loaded with a maximum of three MOX fuel assemblies. NRC reports its discussion centered on "thermal and criticality analyses" and the package testing program, which will test a full-scale container using the 30-foot drop test and puncture tests. Application for package approval is expected in Fall, 2002. Initial designs for the container show a fuel configuration never before tried which has raised concerns among some activists about accidental criticality.

(Thanks to Tom Clements and Don Moniak)

A. Japan: Kariwa Rejects MOX!

On May 27th, residents of Kariwa, Niigata Prefecture (population 5,000) voted in a non-binding referendum to reject the use of MOX fuel in the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactor located near their town. The reactor, the largest in the world, is owned by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and was slated for plutonium fuel use (MOX).

The vote is a huge blow to BNFL who, since a fuel data falsification scandal in 1999, has been trying to win back Japanese MOX contracts. Japanese contracts would have provided an estimated 40% of the revenue for BNFL's still unopened Sellafield MOX fabrication plant (see more below). BNFL downplayed the results of the vote saying that the Japanese government is still committed to MOX fuel use.

But on June 1st Kariwa Mayor Hiroo Shinada will meet with Mayor Masazumi Saikawa of neighboring Kashiwazaki City along with Niigata Prefecture Governor Ikuo Hirayama to discuss asking Tepco to postpone the use of MOX fuel at the plant. Tepco already postponed plans for MOX fuel use at another of its plants in Fukushima Prefecture. The vote and subsequent delays in the program cast serious doubt on the future of Japan's plutonium fuel program.

MORE INFORMATION:
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
www.cnic.or.jp/english/

B. UK: BNFL's "Voodoo Economics

On May 23rd the British government completed its fourth consultation concerning the opening of BNFL's Sellafield MOX Plant but building a sound economic case that would allow for the opening of the plant remains elusive. (Under European law, a nuclear facility that subjects the public to extra radioactivity must be justified on economic grounds before it can be licensed.) Construction on the plant was completed in 1996 (cost: US$658 million), but it was never allowed to operate.

Though in recent months BNFL has claimed it has secured agreements to cover 40% of the capacity of the plant, in reality contracts are only signed to cover less than 10% of the plant's capacity. Further undermining BNFL's claims, in mid-May, leaked BNFL documents showed that foreign contractors were deeply dissatisfied with BNFL's failures and cost overruns and were considering lawsuits against the company (see .)

On May 24th, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace challenged the UK government in high court, accusing environment secretary John Prescott and health secretary Alan Milburn of using "voodoo economics" to justify the opening of Sellafield. The groups point out that the government withheld an independent report on Sellafield's economic viability from the public consultation on the plant and failed to include construction costs in the financial accounting considered in the recent consultation.

The recent anti-MOX vote in Kairwa, Japan was yet another setback to BNFL's plans for Sellafield, who had been hoping that the Japanese MOX market would provide 40% of the plant's revenue.

(Thanks to Pete Roche of Greenpeace UK and David Lowry, environmental consultant in Stoneleigh, England)

C. Russia

1. Nuclear Waste Import

   On April 18th the Russian Duma (lower house of Parliament) passed the second reading of a bill that would overturn existing Russian environmental law and allow for the import of nuclear waste. A vote on a third reading of the bill is scheduled to take place June 7th.

   The Russian atomic ministry, Minatom, is proposing the waste dumping scheme as a means of generating an estimated $21 billion in revenues supposedly to aid in nuclear cleanup, though Minatom is clear it wants to reprocess the fuel and provide MOX fuel to European markets. Minatom would like to import some 20,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel over the next decade from countries such as South Korea, Japan, Germany and Switzerland.

   While a defeat for environmentalists, the vote passed by a smaller margin than earlier votes, as Duma members have had increasing questions about corruption within Minatom and the impacts of the program on the environment. The proposed destination for the waste, the Mayak facility in Chelyabinsk, is already highly contaminated and surrounding communities suffer an array of health-problems related to past and present nuclear activities at the site.

   Meanwhile, it is possible that some shipments of German-origin nuclear waste have already been arriving in Russia. In May Greenpeace activists in St. Petersburg reported they have detected 20 trainloads emitting high levels of radiation passing through the Avtovo railway station since January.

   If Greenpeace is correct, the shipments pose serious policy and safety questions. The shipments would be illegal under current law and if they contain spent fuel, workers and the public could have received high levels of radiation as the train cars reportedly were not marked as hazardous nor were they handled using any special safety equipment. A state radiation safety official reported readings of nearly seven thousand microroentgens per hour within one meter of the containers.

   MORE INFORMATION:
   Greenpeace nuclear program website:
   www.greenpeace.org/pressreleases/nucwaste/2001apr18.html
   www.greenpeace.org/~nuclear/waste/russianwaste.html

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2. MOX Funding Still Uncertain

   Russian MOX proponents continue to hold out hope, but as of a May meeting of the G8 Non-Proliferation Expert Working Group in Rome no progress was made on securing funding commitments among western countries for Russia's weapons MOX program. An estimated $1 billion is needed to begin investment in the program - the entire program is estimated to cost around $2.5 billion, though actual costs would likely be higher.

   The US has firmly committed $200 million -- another $200 million not yet appropriated by Congress is in jeopardy as it is part of a review by the Bush Administration of nonproliferation programs in Russia and may not materialize if other G-8 funding sources are not forthcoming. The US is hoping to secure additional funding for the program by the time the G8 meets again in July. Current commitments by the US, Britain and France total $360 million.