MOX Conditions Will Be Met

MOX Conditions Will Be Met

Apr 06 - Herald; Rock Hill, S.C.

A shipment of nuclear fuel containing weapons-grade plutonium is expected to arrive in Charleston any day now, and Duke Power has been given the green light to test the fuel - called mixed-oxide fuel, or MOX - at the Catawba Nuclear Station.

But certain conditions must be met first, and some opponents continue to fight the plan.

A Duke spokesperson on Tuesday said the conditions required by a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission board concerning the company's plan for safely guarding the MOX fuel will be met before the shipment arrives in York County.

Duke's Rita Sipe would not give a timetable for when the conditions would be met or whether the conditions could delay the shipment.

"We will comply with all conditions of the license amendment before the lead MOX test assemblies arrive at Catawba," Sipe said. "That's all I can say."

The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, a nonprofit environmental organization, filed a petition with the NRC arguing that Duke's request for less stringent security measures would place the public at too great a risk.

Details of the security issues touched on by the NRC cannot be released. However, the concerns had to do with the storage of the four MOX test fuel rods, or assemblies, at the Catawba plant.

Once the fuel rods are delivered by the U.S. Department of Energy, they will be stored in an underwater facility along with the uranium-oxide assemblies now used at the plant. Within weeks, the MOX assemblies will be loaded into the station's Reactor 1.

Lou Zeller of the defense league and a group opposed to the plan say they'll be in Columbia on Thursday with a mock-up of the transport container the assemblies will be shipped in. Zeller said the group hopes to meet with Gov. Mark Sanford to convince him to block the shipment's traveling over South Carolina highways.

He hopes the ships bringing the MOX assemblies from France will not have arrived by then. The two ships departed on March 15; the convoy was expected to take about two weeks to arrive.

"We hope that we are ahead of it so the governor can do something," Zeller said.

Greenpeace International and other environmental groups are keeping a 24-hour watch on the Charleston Harbor for the arrival of the ships. Zeller said he expects a protest when the ships finally arrive. A rally was held in Charleston over the weekend to protest the MOX plan.

MOX fuel is made of 5 percent plutonium oxide and 95 percent uranium oxide, the fuel commonly used in nuclear reactors.

The four MOX units will be tested for about three years to determine if the material can be used safely as fuel. When the test is completed, Duke Power plans to apply for a larger program, which would use about 40 assemblies.

The Catawba plant will be the first in the United States to use MOX fuel and the first in the world to use weapons-grade plutonium. Between 30 and 35 nuclear plants in Europe use MOX fuel, but the plutonium is not weapons-grade.

Certain portions of the licensing board's decision will be made available soon, said NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre. All appeals have been exhausted, and the board's order becomes final on April 19, he said.

Jason Cato 329-4071

jcato@heraldonline.com

What is MOX fuel?

Mixed-oxide fuel - or MOX fuel - is made by mixing uranium oxide and plutonium oxide from older nuclear weapons and placing the material in fuel rods. MOX fuel has been used in European nuclear reactors for decades, but those fuel assemblies do not use weapons- grade plutonium. The Catawba Nuclear Station will be the first U.S. nuclear plant to use MOX fuel and the first in the world to use weapons-grade plutonium.

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