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Tell Energy Northwest to STOP MOX
PLUTONIUM FUEL
in Washington State's
Columbia reactor!

Educating and activating the grassroots to create a
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PO Box 8574
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nukewatchsouth@mindspring.com

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ACTION CENTER | ELIMINATE MOX FUNDING

Tell the House Energy & Water Subcommittee ~ "Time to Eliminate Funding for DOE’s Troubled and Costly Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Program"

The House Subcommittee on Energy & Water begins its federal budget review process June 2, 2011. For five years running, $500 million of our taxes have been squandered to construct the Department of Energy's (DOE) MOX "factory to nowhere" at Savannah River Site (SRS). The radioactive pork MOX plutonium program is 10 years behind schedule and costs have ballooned from $1 billion to $5 billion.

It is time to pull the plug on the tax-funded MOX plutonium fuel boondoggle!

DOE'S MOX plutonium fuel tests have already failed in Duke Power reactors and Duke subsequently chose to quit the MOX program. In public hearings conducted by DOE last summer, residents in the Tennessee River Valley stated their vigorous opposition to MOX plutonium fuel in TVA reactors. Three of the reactors being pursued by DOE are of the exact same GE design as Fukushima in Japan. Indeed, one of the reactors that exploded at Fukushima was loaded with MOX plutonium fuel and highly toxic plutonium has been found a mile away. Public pressure is needed NOW to terminate the dangerous MOX factory to nowhere. There are better ways to make energy, and better ways to dispose of plutonium, such as plutonium immobilization in existing high-level radioactive tank waste at SRS.

TAKE ACTION!

USE THIS HANDY EMAIL ACTION LETTER!

Experts researched and wrote this handy email action letter for YOU to send and make a difference! Tell Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, chair of the House Subcommittee on Energy & Water to eliminate funding for MOX plutonium fuel factory construction.

You may edit the letter as you wish or send it as it is. SEND NOW! DEADLINE IS JUNE 2, 2011.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SIGN YOUR NAME AT THE END OF THE MESSAGE

June 1, 2011   
   
To: Representative Frelinghuysen

Attention: Energy & Water Development Funding

Time to Terminate Funding for DOE's Troubled and Costly Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Program

Long before the Fukushima nuclear accident, where reactor-grade plutonium fuel (MOX) was involved in the catastrophic accident in reactor no. 3, the Department of Energy's MOX program was clouded in a host of cost, technical and scheduling problems. Fiscal conservatism necessitates terminating funding for the program to make MOX from weapons-grade plutonium. A cheaper and safer program based on sounder non-proliferation policies must be pursued: immobilization of plutonium as waste.

~ Minimal support for the MOX project exists outside of the immediate area around the Savannah River Site (SRS), where the MOX plant construction lumbers forward. The French government-owned plutonium company AREVA building the MOX plant at SRS is the real financial winner in this budget-busting project.

~ The MOX plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has become the second largest construction project of the U.S. Government, after the Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford. The cost of the MOX factory construction alone has soared from an estimated $1.6 billion in 2004 to $4.8 billion, and the costs will continue to climb as administrative and planning costs are far above the $4.8 billion cost estimate.

~ After a decade of DOE's pursuit of reactors to use MOX, there are no customers willing to take the problematic fuel. Duke Energy dropped out of the program in 2008 after a MOX test failed in one of its reactors and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) may postpone a decision to use MOX until 2012.

~ Three of TVA's boiling water reactors (BWRs) being eyed for MOX use are the Browns Ferry reactors in Athens, Alabama which have the old GE Mark I containment, of the same design as the Fukushima reactors. Browns Ferry suffered a recent station blackout and the site was just issued a red violation, the most serious level of violation, by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) when it was discovered that a key emergency cooling valve  had been dysfunctional for a year in one of the reactors. These aging TVA reactors are now shut following devastating tornadoes, and have been shut half the time in the past two summers because of overheated water in the Tennessee River. These aging reactors are certainly not suitable to handle the stresses that MOX plutonium fuel places on reactor performance and control.

~ The MOX fuel fabrication facility is at great risk of either not operating or operating under 50% of capacity for the initial eight or more years after it starts up. DOE is not informing Congress about this dire scheduling problem. MOX made from weapons-grade plutonium has never been used commercially and never even tested in BWRs. An NRC-authorized test of experimental weapons-grade MOX will be required in the Browns Ferry reactors which could take six years (3 irradiation cycles x 2 years each), followed by many years of post-irradiation examination and license review. The SRS MOX plutonium fuel factory, if constructed and licensed, would be the only place in the world capable of fabricating MOX made from weapons-grade plutonium and the factory is at risk of shutting down after manufacturing the MOX test assemblies while the multi-year testing and licensing is conducted.

A full GAO report on MOX is necessary to review the lack of reactors and the scheduling and operational problems posed by MOX testing. The comparative merits of securing plutonium via the troubled MOX path or via the alternative, plutonium immobilization with existing high-level radioactive waste at SRS, must also be revisited in the report. Funding for MOX must be withheld until such a report is finished and a clear path forward is presented. Will you support the prudent request for such a report?

Sincerely,

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SIGN YOUR NAME AT THE END OF THE MESSAGE

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NO NUKES Y'ALL!

"To the village square
we must carry the facts
of atomic energy.
From there must come America's voice."

ALBERT EINSTEIN

~~~~~~

FREE STICKERS!

Cool stickers FREE with FREE membership in
Nuclear Watch South!

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It's Time to Pull the
Plug on the MOX "Factory to Nowhere"
by Ed Lyman

PLUTONIUM WAITS
by Glenn Carroll

~~~~~~

REFERENCES

FOIA documents from Energy Northwest
partial
final

DOE Presentation on Status of MOX Plant, January 6, 2011

Duke Energy Abandons Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Testing Program in South Carolina Reactor

Plutonium Disposition Remains In Disarray

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PLUTONIUM FACTS

Year plutonium was discovered by Glenn Seaborg and others
1941

Minimum amount of plutonium required for bomb
1 kilogram (2.2 pounds)

Amount of plutonium used in Nagasaki bomb
6.5 kilograms

Average amount of plutonium used in modern atom bomb
3 kilograms

Estimated amount of U.S. weapons-grade plutonium
85,000 kilograms (93.5 tons)

Estimated amount of Russian weapons-grade plutonium
160,000 kilograms (176 tons)

Hazards associated with plutonium
Radiation, fire, inhalation, ingestion, criticality, reactivity, decay

Length of time that
plutonium 239 (weapons-grade) remains hazardous
240,000 years
(Ten 24,000-year half-lives)

Form of plutonium most hazardous to life
Plutonium oxide powder

What happens to plutonium metal when exposed to air
Gradually turns to
plutonium oxide powder

Lethal amount of plutonium oxide powder (inhaled)
2000 micrograms

Lethal amount of plutonium oxide powder (ingested)
500,000 micrograms

Amount of sugar substitute in average 1 gram package
1,000,000 micrograms

Excerpted from Stop Plutonium Fuel: Plutonium Index, compiled by Don Moniak. Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, www.bredl.org

FUKUSHIMA NEWS

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Help the NO NUKES Y'ALL campaign y'all

Nuclear Watch South is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible charitable organization.

{ thanks }

PayPal It's your safe and secure way to donate on-line

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

TAKE ACTION ! Tell Energy Northwest to STOP MOX PLUTONIUM FUEL in Washington State's Columbia reactor!

Educating and activating the grassroots to create a nuclear-free future

~

PO Box 8574 Atlanta, GA 31106 404-378-4263 nukewatchsouth@mindspring.com

NO NUKES Y'ALL!

ACTION CENTER | ELIMINATE MOX FUNDING

Tell the House Energy & Water Subcommittee ~ "Time to Eliminate Funding for DOE’s Troubled and Costly Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Program"

TAKE ACTION!

USE THIS HANDY EMAIL ACTION LETTER!

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SIGN YOUR NAME AT THE END OF THE MESSAGE

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SIGN YOUR NAME AT THE END OF THE MESSAGE

NO NUKES Y'ALL!

"To the village square we must carry the facts of atomic energy. From there must come America's voice." ALBERT EINSTEIN

~~~~~~

FREE STICKERS!

Cool stickers FREE with FREE membership in Nuclear Watch South!

~~~~~~

MORE ON MOX

It's Time to Pull the Plug on the MOX "Factory to Nowhere" by Ed Lyman

PLUTONIUM WAITS by Glenn Carroll

~~~~~~

REFERENCES

FOIA documents from Energy Northwest partial final

DOE Presentation on Status of MOX Plant, January 6, 2011

Duke Energy Abandons Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Testing Program in South Carolina Reactor

Plutonium Disposition Remains In Disarray

~~~~~~

PLUTONIUM FACTS

Help the
NO NUKES Y'ALL
campaign
y'all

PayPal
It's your safe and secure
way to donate on-line

TAKE ACTION !

Tell Energy Northwest to STOP MOX
PLUTONIUM FUEL
in Washington State's
Columbia reactor!

Educating and activating the grassroots to create a
nuclear-free future

PO Box 8574
Atlanta, GA 31106
404-378-4263
nukewatchsouth@mindspring.com

"To the village square
we must carry the facts
of atomic energy.
From there must come America's voice."

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Cool stickers FREE with FREE membership in
Nuclear Watch South!

It's Time to Pull the
Plug on the MOX "Factory to Nowhere"
by Ed Lyman

PLUTONIUM WAITS
by Glenn Carroll

FOIA documents from Energy Northwest
partial
final