DOE To Build Processing Plant in SC

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Hadn't seen anyone mention this all week, so, here is an article for information:

WASHINGTON (AP)- The Energy Department took another step Tuesday 
toward establishing a system to dispose of much of its excess plutonium by 
burning it as converted civilian reactor fuel. 

Energy Secretary Federico Pena said the decision has been made to build a 
processing plant at the Savannah River weapons complex in South Carolina, 
where plutonium would be fabricated into a mixed oxide fuel usable in 
commercial reactors. 

It has not yet been decided where the plutonium will be separated from 
warheads and prepared for disposition, but it will either be Savannah River or 
the Pantex complex near Amarillo, Texas, Pena said. 

The disposal effort is estimated to cost $1.8 billion to $2.3 billion over 25 years, 
much of it for building and operating the plutonium conversion plant. The plant 
is expected to produce its first MOX fuel sometime in 2007, according to the
department's current plans. 

The Hanford weapons complex in Washington state and the Idaho National 
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory were considered for the facilities, but 
were eliminated, officials said. 

The Energy Department last year announced it would pursue a ``dual strategy'' 
for disposal of about 50 metric tons of excess weapons-usable plutonium left 
over from years of warhead production and stockpiling during the Cold War. 

About 8 tons of the plutonium will be encased in glass - so-called vitrification - 
and then stored in a permanent underground facility, probably Yucca Mountain 
in the Nevada desert. But the rest will be converted to mixed oxide fuel and 
used in commercial reactors as fuel. 

The use of converted plutonium in civilian reactors has come under criticism 
from environmentalists and nuclear weapons proliferation watchdog groups. 
They contend it sends a signal to the rest of the world that plutonium can be 
put into commerce as a valuable fuel, instead of being disposed of as a 
dangerous radioactive waste. 

Department officials argue that proliferation concerns are unjustified because of 
precautions that will be taken to protect the plutonium and the fact that the fuel 
will be used in a once-through process. 

``The United States has shown leadership in the effort to irreversibly dispose of 
excess weapons-grade plutonium,'' Pena said in a statement. ``Today's 
announcement is critical to implementing the U.S. hybrid strategy.'' 

U.S. officials said they hoped the selection of locations for the plutonium 
processing plant will send another type of signal to Russia - that it should move 
forward in its own plutonium disposal plans. 

It ``sends a strong signal to Russia of the seriousness with which the United 
States views the disposition of excess weapons plutonium,'' said a statement 
issued by the Energy Department. 

Russia has been reluctant to commit to irreversible disposal of its weapons-
grade plutonium unless the United States also shows it is ready to destroy, 
and not just put in storage, its plutonium stockpile. Even so Russia has begun 
building a number of nuclear reactors that can use MOX fuel. 


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Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Office: (800) 548-5100 x2306 
Fax:    (714) 668-3111
  
sandyfl@earthlink.net
sperle@icnpharm.com

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