YOUR PARTICIPATION IS NEEDED TO INSURE A LARGE TURN OUT AT UP-COMING PUBLIC MEETINGS ON THE PRODUCTION AND USE OF EXPERIMENTAL PLUTONIUM "BOMB FUEL" IN SOUTHEASTERN REACTORS

 

June 23, 2000

 

Dear Friends in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,

 

We in the Southeast are on the front line, facing a new, clear, and present danger from the nuclear establishment. An unprecedented merger of the civilian and military nuclear complex, and of US and European plutonium interests has resulted from the decision to take dismantled nuclear weapons and convert them to fuel for civilian nuclear power reactors, here and in Russia. While we need to make the plutonium from nuclear weapons unavailable for new bombs, putting it in reactors is a really bad idea.

 

This bad idea, referred to by the acronym for the fuel, 'MOX' (mixed-oxide, made from plutonium and uranium), is actually one of the most destabilizing moves made by the United States in a long time. Here at home, an experimental, untried nuclear fuel, made from weapons plutonium which is known to be harder to control (and more deadly than uranium if there is an accident) would be loaded into US reactors. At the same time our tax dollars would be loaded into nuclear utility pockets like never before, just at the time that they might have to compete with other sources of electricity. Plutonium fuel is a likely precursor to the reprocessing of the huge back-log of nuclear waste in the US, to keep the process going beyond the bomb material just like in Europe and Russia. Savannah River Site is the only reprocessing site in the US.

 

Internationally, the US will do exactly what we tell Iraq, Iran, North Korea and other 'rogue nations' not to: merging our military and civilian programs. Then there is the fact that our tax dollars will pay for MOX bomb fuel in Russia. We will give Russia plutonium factory, since they will reprocess the MOX fuel waste.

 

So, MOX puts us at risk, and we are going to pay for it too? It is time that we say something about it! Just because the federal agencies say this is a "go" doesn't mean we can't stop it. Remember the MX missile? The Clinch River Breeder? The Barnwell MOX fuel proposal? We have won many times…it is imperative that we fight, and win again.

 

I am forwarding to you the following message that I received from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by e-mail (NRC will license the MOX fuel fabrication facility to be built at SRS:

 

NRC neglected to mention that the MOX fuel fabrication facility is slated for Savannah River Site.

 

Unless you got this e-mail, read the Federal Register where federal agencies "notify the public" of their actions, or been calling NRC to be sure that they hold meetings in the Southeast, you are unlikely to have heard about this. Believe me, there have been MANY meetings about MOX held by NRC and also DOE that are "open to the public" (if you hear about them), but they are all in the DC area! We are the affected public here. Not all the lobbyists and nuclear industry reps inside the Beltway!

 

WHY YOU NEED TO COME TO THESE MEETINGS:

 

Close to 50 tons of plutonium will be transported into the Savannah River Site that is not there now. There is an alternative to MOX, called immobilization, and SRS is also the preferred site for this. Most, if not all of these shipments will travel through Georgia. Some may be plutonium in powder form.

 

MOX plutonium fuel will increase the risk of reactor accidents, and currently 4 reactors in the Carolinas are slated for use: the 2 Catawba reactors near Rock Hill and the 2 McGuire reactors near Charlotte, all owned by Duke Power. Two other nuclear utilities were involved in this program, Commonwealth Edison in Illinois and Virginia Power. Both dropped out because MOX no longer "fit their business plan." It is likely that one or more other nuclear reactor site will be added in the future, with Georgia Power's Vogtle near the top of the list. (MOX fuel has been used in Europe, but never from weapons grade plutonium.)

 

MOX plutonium fuel will nearly double the number of cancer deaths resulting from a major accident.

 

Unused plutonium fuel is a national security risk that would be transported through our region. The unused fuel is prime target for interests seeking to divert nuclear weapons materials. The plutonium and uranium can be separated pretty easily and it is said within 24 hours that plutonium could be a bomb.

 

Have no illusion. NRC has only EVER denied a license because a huge amount of citizen  resistance and action forced them to! Also, do not refer to these meetings as hearings. We reserve that  term for legal -"on the record"- proceedings. However, this is our chance to speak out and also ask  questions about the process of license intervention which will give us real hearings and an official  platform to fight the license process. If your group has legal counsel, ask them to attend this meeting.

 

We need to speak out at every opportunity so that the press, the business community, the workers and the decision makers know that there is more than one point of view on this idea. At the initial hearings to decide where in the US to make MOX fuel, DOE primarily heard "we want this" from this area.

 

Ask your state representative or US rep. (or their staff)  to come if they are concerned about MOX, ask  your medical and emergency service community to attend. This is an opportunity to wake people up to the  fact that something is happening, and happening fast!

 

Bring your children. This has been highly effective at other NRC events. Young children are a reminder  of who they are mandated by law to protect (even though all of US radiation exposure limits are modeled  on adult males taking the dose!) and teenagers need to see and hear what is going on. When very young  adults choose to speak, it is often the most direct.  Mobilize college students to turn out -- maybe all wearing "NIX MOX" painted on T-shirts? Or your  clergy people in their formal attire ...what ever makes sense to you. The main thing, is BE THERE!

 

Please pass this notice on. It is time to ask members of your other groups who are interested to come on out, and bring their family too.

 

If you are planning to attend either meeting (or both!) please contact me, Mary Olson at NIRS Southeast. I am serving as a contact person to network people who are attending these events.  I can promise you that

you will not be alone! There will be other NIX-MOX folks at both of these meetings...and the more the better!  Get in touch and I will give you the details. I am also very happy to hear any ideas you have for how we can best use these meetings to build our campaign. -- Mary Fox Olson

 

P.S. I will be away June 25 -- 30, so leave a  voice mail message and  I will call you back,  or send an e-mail and you will hear back from me July 3.