By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published Nov. 13, 2009
Duke Energy is denying an environmental group’s assertion that it has backed away from the use of reprocessed fuel in its nuclear power plants.
The utility has been working with the U.S. Energy Department to test the use of mixed-oxide fuel in nuclear reactors. MOX fuel is reprocessed from plutonium, including weapons-grade materials; the Savannah River Site has been tabbed by Congress to be the site of a huge reprocessing facility.
The Friends of the Earth environmental group said Thursday that Duke has ended its tests on MOX fuel. Citing anonymous sources familiar with company operations, the group said that MOX fuel was not reloaded into Duke’s reactor during regular cycle maintenance.
“Duke’s total abandonment of the plutonium fuel program should be a wake-up call to the Department of Energy,” Tom Clements, Southeastern nuclear campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth, said in a statement.
Some environmental groups say the MOX program creates too many safety issues in the transport and processing of the plutonium and could hinder efforts at the prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons.
Indeed, Duke did not reload the MOX fuel into the reactor, but that’s a normal part of the test process, Duke Energy spokeswoman Rita Sipe said. The fuel rods using MOX fuel have been sent to an Oak Ridge, Tenn., laboratory for analysis for planned testing, Sipe said. That evaluation is still under way, and the reactor is being reloaded with fuel as scheduled.
Duke Energy is not changing its participation in the MOX program, Sipe said. “We still support this process.”
Sipe acknowledged that Duke’s contract with Shaw Areva MOX Services to conduct the tests lapsed on Dec. 1, but she said the utility has sent the company a letter of intent to continue the relationship.
Several tons of plutonium from nuclear weapons have been shipped to SRS in recent years, while the government has started work on a $4.8 billion plant to convert that material into fuel that can provide power.
This whole MOX business is a costly mess. South Carolina is now the dumping ground for the nation's plutonium and given all the problems with using MOX we are in for long-term storage. Meanwhile, DOE is wasting money on a $5 billion MOX plant at the Savannah River Site, for which there is no client or demonstrated ability to use MOX. That's big, wasteful government for you!
The plutonium will be thrown away and not used for anything if it's not blended with uranium to make MOX fuel for U.S. power reactors. The plutonium has a lot of value and energy production capability. Why would using it be more wasteful than disposing of it without extracting anything valuable? I agree that need to do it in most cost-effective manner. Commercial reactors will buy MOX fuel if NRC allows them to use it without extraordingary hurdles which would reduce taxpayer burden for the DOE SRS MOX plant cost....maybe even pay for it.
We need MOX fabrication infrastructure to be in place for when thorium-plutonium MOX gets permitted for use in reactors.
It may be a mess now, but soon after SRS begins operation, the Th-Pu MOX will be ready for manufacture, and will provide USA with a far superior fuel to either MOX or UOX.
Fiscal Conservative - All you do is scour the Internet for articles on MOX and trash talk them with the same dribble every time. Find a new hobby!
MOX is an excellent project! If we DON'T build MOX, even more of your tax-paid money will go to waste because all that plutonium will be buried in the side of a mountain. Why bury what is essentially good money when it can be reused? Not to mention that fact that all of that plutonium would have to be guarded for the rest of eternity.
What is so hard to understand? MOX is finally ACTING on our energy crisis, instead of just babbling on like yourself.
The people who oppose using MOX are the same people who oppose Yucca Mountain are the same people who say Nuclear is too expensive are the same people who are prolonging the energy crisis.
MOX dramatically increases the efficiency of the fuel cycle while Yucca mountain closes it. Both of these projects make Nuclear FAR more cost-effective than any of the other alternatives AND addresses ever single gram of byproduct (which no other source does!).
Make no mistake, these losers don't care about your electric bill or your lights on/off. They only care about staying stupid and keeping you adicted to oil!
Yes