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NIX MOX BULLETIN BOARD
July 28, 1999
Welcome to the NIX MOX BULLETIN BOARD, a periodic posting of
MOX-related news and resources. The purpose of the Bulletin
Board is to help anti-MOX activists stay in touch with each other,
share news and information, and network locally, regionally,
nationally and internationally. Please send news to share to:
port@bigsky.net.
Thanks for your help! (Click here if you are wondering,
what is MOX?)
- I. International MOX News and Updates
- MOX Fuel Shipment to Japan
- Sellafield MOX Plant Consultation
- Cogema News
- Russia
- II. Savannah River Site (SRS) Information
- Actnide Packaging and Storage Facility (APSF)
- SRS Site Profile
- Plutonium Shipments from Rocky Flats
- Energy & Environment Project SRS Update
- III. MOX Online / MOX DOCS
- US-Russian Agreements on MOX
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Reports
- Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
- Citizen's Nuclear Information Center
- IV. MOX Miscellaneous
- What does the Nuclear Waste Bill have to do with MOX?
- Summer Reading
- I. INTERNATIONAL MOX NEWS AND UPDATES
- A. MOX Fuel Shipment to Japan
- Two British flagged freighters, the Pacific Teal from the French
port of Cherbourg and the Pacific Pintail from the British Nuclear
Fuels (BNFL) plutonium factory at Sellafield, departed last week
for Japan with a cargo of MOX fuel. The combined cargo includes
almost 450 kilograms of plutonium and is expected to arrive in
Japan around mid-September. As of this writing, the freighters are
estimated to be off the northwest coast of Africa and approaching
the Cape of Good Hope.
The Greenpeace vessel MV Sirius mounted a peaceful protest
against the shipment and managed to delay the departure of the
Pacific Teal for 12 hours. Greenpeace International has now been
banned from all UK territorial waters and on July 20 its bank
account was seized at the request of BNFL.
For a press release on the shipment and actions against
Greenpeace, contact Pete Roche, Campaigner, Greenpeace UK
Pete.Roche@uk.greenpeace.org.
For a sample letter protesting
the actions taken against Greenpeace, contact Helen Wallace of
Greenpeace UK at
Helen.Wallace@uk.greenpeace.org
(Thanks to Pete Roche of Greenpeace UK, and Martin Forwood
and Janine Allis-Smith of CORE - Cumbrians Opposed to a
Radioactive Environment - for this information.)
- B. Sellafield MOX Plant Consultation
- Thank you to those who sent comments for the consultation on
start-up of the Sellafield MOX plant (see Nix MOX Bulletin Board
7/21/99). Samples of comments can be viewed at:
www.wand.org/issuesact/nixmoxsupp7-28.html.
- C. Cogema News
- On June 24 the French newspaper Le Monde reported that French
Prime Minister Jospin appointed Anne Lauvergeon as new
president of Cogema. (Cogema is the French nuclear corporation
that is a key player in the consortium with whom the US DOE is
contracting for its MOX program.) Lauvergeon is an engineer who
has worked in industry and government, and is expected to bring
more transparency to Cogema. (Thanks to Lisa Ledwidge and
Annie Makhijani at IEER for this information.)
More transparency would be welcome as few hard facts are known
about Cogema's environmental and health record. DOE has
promised this information on its Fissile Materials Disposition
website (www.doe-md.com/), but has yet to produce it, providing
instead a helpful link to the Cogema homepage,
www.cogema.com.
- D. Russia
- An action organized by the Anti-Nuclear Campaign of the Socio-
Ecological Union will take place beginning August 15 on the
Novovoronezh, where the oldest VVER-1000 reactor is located
(started in 1980). The action will have an anti-MOX component
because MOX fuel is planned for this plant. (Thanks to Michelle
Boyd at IEER for this announcement.)
- II. SAVANNAH RIVER SITE (SRS) INFORMATION
- A. Actnide Packaging and Storage Facility (APSF)
- The APSF was to play a key role in DOE's plutonium disposition
and clean-up programs as a storage site for plutonium shipped to
SRS from around the weapons complex. DOE has now delayed
construction of the facility indefinitely, jeopardizing safe
plutonium storage. A July 1999 DOE report on the situation is available on the web at:
http://dr.tis.doe.gov/archive/1999/tb99l02a.htm.
No web access? contact port@bigsky.net for a copy.
- B. SRS Site Profile Available
- Information on facilities, mission, budget, employment numbers
and more. Non-critical assessment of the site, some recent
information not included, but good for general background.
Available at:
www.tis.eh.doe.gov/oversight/profiles/profiles.html
(released June 1999) (Thanks to Don Moniak of STAND - Serious
Texans Against Nuclear Dumping - for this information.)
- C. Plutonium Shipments from Rocky Flats to Resume
- After discovering that plutonium being shipped to SRS from
Rocky Flats (DOE weapons site in Colorado) was generating
hydrogen in plutonium shipping containers at a rate greater than an
order-of-magnitude higher than predicted, DOE suspended
shipments of plutonium sand, slag and crucible in May, 1999. The
discovery included a determination that the hydrogen build-up
could lead to "a postulated detonation scenario for the container."
DOE is now "pursuing multiple approaches" to address the
problem, including testing to see if the containers can withstand
detonation, and is working to resume shipments by the end of
September, 1999. For more information see
www.dnfsb.gov/weekly/sr/sr1999.htm and click on the June 25,
1999 report.
- D. Energy & Environment Project SRS Update
- New weekly SRS update available from the Carolina Peace
Resource Center in Columbia, SC. This week's issue includes
information on a report on the fish consumption advisory for the
Savannah River downstream from SRS and commentary on public
process and the results of the June 24 hearing on MOX in
Columbia, SC. For a copy of the update contact Ethan Brown,
Executive Director of CPRC Energy & Environment Project,
ethanbrown@earthlink.net
- III. MOX ONLINE / MOX DOCS
- A. US-Russian Agreements on MOX
- Archive of treaties and international agreements between the US
and Russia regarding plutonium disposition. Go to:
www.doe-md.com/ and click on the "Work with Russia" button.
- B. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Reports
- Reports related to plutonium disposition available at:
www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/.
This page allows you to search for
documents by title, subject, author, etc. Search for authors L. J.
Jardine or Leonard Grey for plutonium disposition reports.
(Thanks to Don Moniak of STAND for this information.)
- C. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
- Weekly reports on safety and other issues at DOE nuclear weapons
facilities. For reports on SRS go to:
www.dnfsb.gov/weekly/sr/sr1999.htm.
- D. Citizen's Nuclear Information Center
- Lots of information on plutonium fuel (MOX), signature-gathering
campaign to oppose Japan's MOX transport plan, links to the
International MOX Assessment (1997 report), status of Japanese
reactors proposed for MOX use, update on the MOX situation in
Japan, much more. See: www.jca.apc.org/cnic/english/index.html.
(Thanks to James Quinn for passing along this web address.)
- IV. MOX MISCELLANEOUS
- A. What does the Nuclear Waste Bill have to do with MOX?
- The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1999 (Senate Bill
1287 - also known as "Mobile Chernobyl") would establish an
"Office of Spent Nuclear Fuel Research" within the DOE to
"identify promising technologies for the treatment, recycling, and
disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste." A
June 15 press release on the bill from sponsor Senator Frank
Murkowski (R, AK) says it "specifically requires study of
reprocessing and transmutation (by both accelerators and
reactors)"
The Connection to MOX
The DOE has said repeatedly that MOX would be a "once-
through" process - meaning the MOX spent fuel would not be
reprocessed (processed to recover plutonium and uranium) after it
leaves the reactor. They have also said that a MOX Fabrication
Facility would be decommissioned after its disposition mission and
not used as part of a nuclear waste management scheme that would
reprocess spent fuel and re-fabricate it into new plutonium fuel.
Clearly the nuclear establishment and its allies in Congress have
other ideas. While the US has a policy against commercial
reprocessing in place at the present time, there is growing support,
as evidenced by this bill, for that policy to change. A MOX
Fabrication Plant is the missing link the US needs to put this cycle
in place. It is a dangerous direction and deeply undermines nuclear
nonproliferation efforts. "Recycling" spent fuel means producing
more plutonium, excess stocks of which already threaten global
security. And "transmutation," which figures prominently in this
proposal, also requires reprocessing.
What You Can Do
Contact Kathy Crandall at Physicians for Social Responsibility
(PSR) kcrandall@psr.org for more information and to find out
how you can voice your opposition to this proposal. Other
organizations working to oppose the nuclear waste bill are NIRS -
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (202-328-0002) and
Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy Project (202 546-4996).
More Information:
(Thanks to PSR, NIRS, and NCI for background information.)
- B. Summer Reading:
- Nothing to read this summer? As you anxiously await the release
of the Final EIS on plutonium disposition, refresh your anti-MOX
arguments by checking out the comments submitted by several
groups on the Supplemental EIS. See:
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER):
www.ieer.org/ieer/comments/pu-disp/suppeis.html#June
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR):
www.psr.org/Nuclear_Security/mox_supplementcomments.html
Nuclear Control Institute (NCI):
www.nci.org/el62899.htm
See Nix MOX Bulletin Board for:
July 21, 1999
June 23, 1999
The MOX BULLETIN BOARD is compiled by Women's
Action for New Directions (WAND) Education Fund. For
comments, suggestions, or to add or remove names from this
distribution list, contact Pat Ortmeyer, WAND Field Director
for Nuclear Waste Issues, at port@bigsky.net or 406-327-
0785. Feel free to forward this bulletin, and please include
acknowledgment of WAND.
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This project is funded through a grant from Marianne's Fund, established to
honor the life work of Marianne Bond Webster of Atlanta, GA, whose
exuberant life ended tragically in June 1998. Family and friends developed
the idea for a fund shortly after her death, and in 1999 Women's Action for
New Directions (WAND) Education Fund established Marianne's Fund with the
Atlanta Women's Foundation. WiLL--the Women Legislators' Lobby--and other
WAND programs, which had become so central in Marianne's life, will be
beneficiaries of the Fund, as will related programs of peace, justice, and
protection of the environment. For more information about Marianne's Fund
or to find out how you can make a contribution, contact
WAND Education Fund.
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What is MOX?
MOX ("mixed oxide") is nuclear reactor fuel made from a
mixture of plutonium and uranium. The US Department of
Energy is proposing to use plutonium from dismantled nuclear
warheads to make MOX fuel for use in commercial reactors.
To learn more about MOX, see "The MOX Box" link at
www.wand.org/getfacts/index/index.html.
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