NIX-MOX
CAMPAIGN
Plutonium
Fuel and
Price-Anderson Act Reauthorization
About
20 years ago Congress passed provisions into law which establish a program for
"handling" and limiting the liability from a major nuclear accident at a
commercial power reactor. The total resource to respond to a nuclear catastrophe
is tied to the total number of operating reactors in the US. Today the owners of
the 103 US commercial nuclear power reactors would collectively ante up $7.5
billion over 10 years; beyond that, their liability would end. Any further
liability would lie with the US government, and likely the US taxpayers…or "us
taxpayers" would cover further costs.
When
this law was passed, nuclear power reactors generically used uranium fuel. There
was no plan to put dismantled nuclear warhead material into a power reactor as
fuel…but today Duke Power and Duke Engineering are primary partners in a
consortium with a government contract to do just that. This experiment --
weapons plutonium has never been used as reactor fuel before is being sponsored
with our tax dollars by the US Department of Energy. The fuel (called MOX for
mixed oxide) would be made in South Carolina at the Savannah River site and used
in four Duke power reactors, 2 at the McGuire station on Lake Norman in NC and 2
at the Catawba station on Lake Wylie in SC.
Plutonium
fuel substantially increases the risks of a major nuclear accident, and would
also greatly increase the health consequences. It is not logical that Price
Anderson coverage should be extended to this increased level of risk. By 2002,
Price Anderson has to be reauthorized by the US Congress. With reauthorization
will be debate about possible changes.
CONTACT
CONGRESS: Tell them that Price Anderson should only cover uranium fuels. There
is no justification for increasing nuclear dangers, but if a nuclear reactor
owner is going to increase risk levels significantly, they should pay for
it!
Most
members of Congress have never heard of MOX plutonium fuel. Take a little time
to check out web sites (see below) or Contact Mary Olson at NIRS Southeast
828-251-2060 or nirs.se@mindspring.com
for more info
THEN
TAKE ACTION: A
simple, hand written letter is best…..
Representative
U.S.
House of Representatives
Washington,
DC 20515
Your
Senators (2)
U.S.
Senate
Washington,
DC 20510
or
call via the Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121
¨ Learn
more about the issue. The following Websites have more
information:
¨ Nuclear
Information & Resource Service
www.nirs.org
¨ Institute
for Energy and Environmental Research
www.ieer.org
¨ Nuclear
Control Institute www.nci.org (you must search the site with the key
word "MOX" and you will find they have lots of info)
¨ Women's
Action for New Directions www.wand.org
Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League www.bredl.org
¨ Think
about ways to spread the word about this risky
business:
¨ Add
your name and e-mail address to the NIRS contact list for ALERTs you can forward
to your friends and family
¨ write
letters to the editor
¨ call-in
on radio shows
¨ invite
a speaker to a meeting of one of your organizations -- contact Mary Olson for
possible speakers and to arrange -- 828-251-2060
¨
NUCLEAR
INFORMATION & RESOURCE SERVICE SOUTHEAST
P.O.
Box 7586 Asheville, NC 28802
828-251-2060