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A quarterly newsletter for Sierrans interested in problems posed by the escalating accumulation of nuclear waste. Compiled, condensed, and edited by Ellen Winchester for the Sierra Club National Nuclear Waste Task Force, tel. 850-576-0954.
LETHAL PLUTONIUM ON ROCKET TRIGGERS ALARM. So read the Sunday, 8/24/97 banner headline on the Miami Herald, flagship newspaper of the Knight-Ridder chain, referring to the Cassini space flight to Saturn scheduled for liftoff from Cape Canaveral at 5:38 a.m. Oct. 6. Cassini's instruments are to be powered by 72.3 pounds of plutonium-238, a non-fissile but highly radioactive isotope. One millionth of a gram could cause lung cancer. If the rocket explodes at blast off, two million Floridians could be in danger. If the probe slams into Earth's atmosphere two years later during a close to earth flyby to quicken its pace, millions of fatalities world wide could occur. "It's not worth the risk of putting that many lives in danger," said Michio Kaku, a physics professor at the City University of New York. "Saturn is not going away. There are better ways to explore it." MIXED OXIDE FUEL (MOX) AND REPROCESSING WHAT IS MOX? SNAKE RIVER ALLIANCE SUMMER NEWSLETTER ANSWERS: MOX is the short name for mixed oxide fuel for nuclear reactors. The U.S. has chosen to [believe it can] use MOX in reactors to dispose of nuclear bomb grade plutonium. MOX will be fabricated by removing plutonium from nuclear weapons and adding oxygen to produce a powder. The powder then will be combined with uranium oxide, made into pellets, and placed in long metal tubes to form fuel assemblies. Although it is a chosen option for plutonium disposal, it is misleading to think MOX fuel is a means of consuming plutonium. After use in a nuclear reactor, MOX fuel [will become spent fuel and] will still contain plutonium, 40% to 60% as much as in new MOX fuel. PANTEX AND AMARILLO WELCOME NEW PLUTONIUM PROCESSING MISSIONS. To "dispose of" about 50 tons of surplus plutonium, the U.S. plans to use about 32.5 metric tons as reactor fuel. The other 17.5 metric tons, mostly material deemed unfit for reactor use, will be immobilized in glass or ceramic and buried in a yet-to-be built nuclear repository. If chosen by DOE, Pantex would become the site of a mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility that would make fuel rod assemblies. Members of the Amarillo Economic Development Corp.'s board of directors said the plant has played a vital role in the Amarillo economy. (Amarillo Globe-News, 6/13/97) RAND CORP. CONCLUDES BURNING PU COSTS MORE THAN VITRIFICATION because heat produced by burning will increase the space spent MOX fuel needs in a geological repository by as much as 50% more than placement of vitrified waste. (Inside Energy, 7/14/97) NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES CONCLUDES BOMB CAN BE BUILT FROM INFERIOR GRADE PU. That is, bombs can be made from a power reactor's spent fuel or from a crude reactor intended for the purpose. After careful consideration of the problem, the committee concluded that a well-equipped group with access to even an inferior grade of plutonium could construct a nuclear explosive device "using a simple design that would be assured of having a yield in the range of one to ten kilotons -- that is, having an explosive power equivalent to that of l,000 to 10,000 metric tons of TNT. A one-kiloton bomb would still have a radius of destruction roughly one-third of the Hiroshima weapon, making it a potentially fearsome explosive. (The NAS Committee on International Security and Arms Control in the Management and Disposition of Excess Weapons Plutonium, 1994) PANTEX, SAVANNAH RIVER, HANFORD, AND INEL LOBBY FOR MOX fabrication and plutonium pit conversion. Pantex has the advantage that most of the nation's surplus plutonium is already there, but South Carolina has Strom Thurmond. DOE's decision is expected next summer. (Amarillo Globe-News, 6/15/97) BRITISH NUCLEAR FUELS MAY FACE CANCELED CONTRACTS NOW THAT PLANS for a radioactive waste dump at Sellafield have been abandoned. Contracts between British Nuclear Fuels and foreign clients require a rad waste dump in place for low-level and intermediate reprocessing of waste, or else all waste associated with the reprocessing of foreign spent fuel must be returned to the client state. (Greenpeace, 6/2/97) NUKE WASTE STILL SAILS THE BOUNDING MAIN PLUS PANAMA CANAL AS JAPAN SHIPS SPENT FUEL to La Hague and Sellafield under existing reprocessing contracts. En route countries were not notified of the shipments. Both BNFL and Cogema are seeking new contracts. Japan has approximately 10 tons of U.S. origin plutonium stockpiled at La Hague and 1.5 tons at Sellafield. (Greenpeace, 8/9/97) U.S. MAY REQUIRE ARMED ESCORT SHIPS FOR JAPANESE MOX SHIPMENTS expected as early as fall '98. On Sept. 6, 1996, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott wrote about the requirement, based on a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, to Benjamin A. Gilman, chair of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee. Two Japanese electric power companies have commissioned Belgium and Britain to fabricate MOX fuel for them. (Mainichi Daily News, 7/29/97) URANIUM WINS ECONOMY CONTEST WITH MOX IN FRANCE. At the same time that plutonium is accumulating at La Hague from reprocessing of spent fuel, (36 metric tons at the end of 1995) the price of natural uranium is decreasing, and uranium produced from reprocessing is also accumulating. By June 1, 1995, 7500 metric tons of uranium had been recovered at La Hague from reprocessing of spent fuel, enough to fabricate l5,000 fuel assemblies. Given these large amounts of uranium available at low prices, MOX fuel cannot compete, even if the plutonium is considered to be free. MOX producers are faced also by a number of technical constraints for the fabrication and storage of MOX, which cannot cannot avoid increasing their cost. (Energy and Security, No. 3, 1997) GREENPEACE TAKES COGEMA'S LA HAGUE PLANT TO TASK AGAIN, this time accusing the nuclear reprocessing plant near Cherbourg in northern France of spewing radioactive waste into the English Channel. Divers found discharges in sludge at the end of a subseabed discharge pipe to be 17 million times more radioactive than normal sea water. A Greenpeace spokesman said "if this sediment were found in a back-yard of a nuclear laboratory, the material would be classified as nuclear waste and handled and stored in controlled conditions." A significant quantity of the radioactive waste being discharged is of U.S. origin uranium irradiated in European and Japanese nuclear reactors. (Greenpeace, 6/17/97) Meanwhile Cogema is cited by MOX proponents as a less expensive potential fabricator of U.S. plutonium into MOX than constructing U.S. facilities. (EW) SPOKANE REVIEW HEADLINES CORPORATE WELFARE POSES NUCLEAR THREAT. The paper's editorial reports that 17 electrical utilities, including the Washington Public Power Supply System, have told the U.S. Energy department they'd like to use fuel made from weapons plutonium in their reactors. They'd get the fuel for free -- although taxpayers would spend a fortune to make it. Reactors that use plutonium fuel are more prone to accidents. And factories that would make this fuel would produce vast quantities of liquid radioactive waste -- just like the waste from Hanford's bomb plants that still defies safe disposal. After the plutonium was used, it too would require disposal, like all spent reactor fuel. If the U.S. does develop manufacturing and reactor technology for plutonium fuel, other nations would use it as well. (Spokane Review, 6/15/97) NUCLEAR WASTE MANAGEMENT DON'T FORGET MOBILE CHERNOBYL, S.1270, THE NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY ACT OF 1997 designed to ship high level nuclear waste to a cement parking lot in the Nevada desert. After recess it moves first to the Commerce Committee and then to the House floor. Its narrow passage through the Senate did not change its dangerously high radiation exposure standards and preemption of important Federal and state environmental laws. The President's promised veto can be sustained if the 34 Senators who voted against the bill in April vote against it again. (SC Action, 8/4/97) WIPP NOW SET TO OPEN MAY 1998, DELAYED FROM NOVEMBER 1997 BY EPA's evaluation and certification requirements "necessary to operate the WIPP as a safe transuranic waste disposal facility." (DOE Carlsbad Area Office, May 16,1997) FEDS SAY BROOKHAVEN MUST TEMPORARILY CONTINUE SENDING LAB'S SPENT FUEL by barge to the Portsmouth, VA, Marine Terminal and by truck to DOE's Savannah River site, rather than ship it all by sea to a South Carolina port near SRS. Tritium is leaking into groundwater around a Brookhaven storage pool, and officials want to move as many rods from the pool as possible so it can be drained and sealed. Agency spokespeople say the marine bypass option around Portsmouth is just on hold, not dead. (The Virginian-Pilot, June 17, 1997) NOTHING TO SHOW FOR MILLIONS SPENT ON LOW LEVEL WASTE DISPOSAL. The Midwest Compact Commission has decided against storing low level nuclear waste from six states for up to 20 years. Compact member Ohio will phase out its own Radioactive Waste Development Authority by Sept. 30. Illinois' hopes for a site have faded as owners changed their minds about allowing their land to be used for this purpose. The Midwest Compact has already spent three million dollars, with the total cost estimated at 100 million dollars. It's the same story everywhere -- regional compacts Congress created 17 years ago to bury low-level radioactive waste haven't a single new repository to show for the $400 million they have spent on research, planning, and site acquisition. Opponents and regulators worry about sites lying too near water which could leak radioactivity into drinking supplies. With a revised target date of 2001 the estimated total cost has climbed past $1 billion. (AP, 7/7/97; Newsgrid, 6/30/97) SEVEN YEAR OLD SOUTH AFRICAN DUMP IS ALREADY LEAKING. Metal drums filled with low level waste and concrete drums filled with what the U.S. would consider high level nuclear waste have been leaking radioactivity for years at Vaalputs, the South African Energy Corporation's (AEC) storage site, according to a senior AEC official. He also alleges that Vaalputs stores high level waste, saying, "we have no other place to dump them." Anxiety about the leaks has risen sharply because the dump site has recently had very heavy rainfall. (Johannesburg Mail and Guardian, 7/10/97) CANADIANS BEAT GERMAN RIVAL FOR CONTRACT TO STORE LITHUANIAN RADWASTE. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) views the contract as open sesame to similar contracts with Western and Asian countries where many of the world's 430 nuclear plants have been operating for more than 10 years and will soon need improved storage systems. Under the AECL plan for Lithuania, spent fuel from the Ignalina nuclear plant would be placed in metal canisters and then stored in six-metre-high, air-cooled concrete vaults at the plant. The technology is currently used at Hydro-Quebec's Gentilly nuclear plant. Lithuania is the most nuclear dependent country in the world and receives 83 per cent of its electric energy from the Ignalina plant, which uses a Chernobyl-type Soviet design. The plant is to be closed by 2020 at the latest. (The Globe and Mail, 8/1/97) UTAH ASKS NRC TO TURN DOWN APPLICATION TO STORE SPENT FUEL ON INDIAN RESERVATION. Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of six electric utilities from the upper Midwest led by Northern States Power of Minnesota, wants to "dispose of" spent fuel rods in concrete casks on the Goshute Indian reservation in Tooele County, UT. The land is surrounded by toxic waste dumps and nerve gas incinerators. The State of Utah has formed an Office of High Level Nuclear Storage Opposition to oppose the license request. (Salt Lake Tribune, 7/22/97. The Nuclear Monitor, 6/97 and 7/97) WARD VALLEY SLATED TO RECEIVE MOSTLY NUCLEAR UTILITY WASTE, NOT MEDICAL WASTE as asserted by dump proponents. A new Congressional Research Service study contradicts a 1991 survey reporting that only a small fraction of the waste would come from nuclear power plants. Instead, the CRS study reports that most waste will come from power plants. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, said the CRS study is more accurate because it used eight years of new data based on "actual shipments" of fuel cycle waste and assumed power plants would be decommissioned sooner, adding up to 40 times more rad waste. (8/15/97) REACTOR WASTE PROBLEMS ONTARIO SHUTS 7 REACTORS NEAR BORDER FOR SAFETY. The action came after an internal report concluded that the province's utility company was so badly managed it had compromised the safety of its entire nuclear power system. All of the shut down reactors are within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Canada's remaining 12 reactors will continue to operate. (New York Times, 8/14/97) VIRGINIA POWER PLANS TO SEEK LICENSE EXTENSIONS FOR ITS NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS. It plans to be among the first utilities to file for such extensions from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. VA Power operates two nuclear reactor units at both its Surry and North Anna power plants in Virginia. No licenses to build new nuclear plants in the U.S. have been issued by the NRC since 1978. (Robert Deegan in July/August Sierra Club Virginia Chapter Newsletter) GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE (GAO) HARSHLY CRITICIZES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OVERSIGHT of problem reactors, its reliance on utilities to fix their own deficiencies, and the slow pace of enforcement action. Sen. Joseph Biden released the report and called for Congressional hearings. He said, in part, "Unfortunately, I remain convinced that an industry bias permeates the NRC, and that safety concerns come second. 187 ORGANIZATIONS URGE NRC TO UPHOLD THE MAY 2 ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING DECISION that would deny Louisiana Energy Services a construction permit for a uranium enrichment facility on the grounds of environmental justice. (The Nuclear Monitor, June 1997) HUNDREDS OCCUPY CZECH REPUBLIC'S TEMELIN REACTOR KNOCKING OVER temporary fences and marching to within a few dozen yards of Temelin's two nearly finished containment buildings. Temelin began as a Soviet VVER pressurized water reactor, but construction was stopped following the Czech revolution of 1989. Now Westinghouse, backed by loans from the U.S. Export Import Bank, is attempting to graft a limited amount of its U.S. technology on the Soviet design. (Michael Mariotte, 7/7/97) STATE AGENCY RULES MILLSTONE SHUTDOWNS WERE NORTHEAST'S FAULT and ratepayers do not have to cover costs. Northeast was seeking rate increases to cover $l billion costs, but it is prohibited from asking for more than $40 million. (The Nuclear Monitor, July, 1997) U.S. Military Waste (Broadly Considered) HANS BETHE, ONE OF THE ORIGINAL BOMB DESIGNERS, URGES HALT TO NUCLEAR TESTING. The 90 year old Nobel Prize winning physicist wrote President Clinton in April that the time had come not only to cease all physical tests no matter how small their yield but also to stop sponsorship of "computational experiments, or even creative thought designed to produce new categories of nuclear weapons." (The Washington Post,5/18/97) DOE'S STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM OBEYS ORDER FROM PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS to think up a new approach to nuclear weapons management in view of the 1992 moratorium on production and underground testing. The proposed National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, intended to ignite brief, self sustaining thermonuclear blasts, is one DOE response. Another was a July 2 nuclear weapons related experiment 980 feet underground at the Nevada Test Site, part of a planned series of such underground experiments. The test involved a high explosive charge and pellets of a nuclear material. Because the explosion does not produce a self-sustaining chain reaction or nuclear explosion it is termed "subcritical." Critics claim both actions violate the spirit and perhaps the letter of the Comprehensive Test Ban the U.S. signed in 1996. (The Amicus Journal, Summer/97, and NGO News and Views, 7/97) SENATE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE REQUESTS $4,043,900,000 FOR STOCKPILE STEWARDSHIP, MANAGEMENT PROGRAM. If the requests survive the Appropriations process, the billions would, among other things, increase funding for nuclear testing readiness, protect ability to resume testing, and pay for subcritical tests in FY98. (Maureen Eldredge, Military Production Network, 7/9/97.) CONGRESS GRANTS PENTAGON MORE $ THAN REQUESTED -- $18 BILLION IN LAST TWO YEARS. With a budget of approximately $170 billion more than all our potential adversaries combined, Congress would fund building planes costing $1.5 billion each, including the B-2 bomber which the Pentagon no longer wants. (Snake River Alliance News Letter, Summer, 6/97) CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE SAYS KEEPING STOCKPILE AT START I LEVEL would save U.S. $22.5 billion by 2010. Trimming down DOE's stewardship program or moving to a "minimal" stewardship approach are cost reducing options. (Nuclear Materials Monitor, 6/2/97) GROUPS DROP OPPOSITION TO NUCLEAR ARMS TESTS. In a hearing in June a coalition which includes the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups, offered to narrow their lawsuit against the Government by dropping opposition to underground chemical tests. The coalition remains opposed to a new laser laboratory at Lawrence Livermore in California. (New York Times, 6/26/97) SAVANNAH RIVER SITE (SRS) BEGINS INCINERATION OF WASTE BACKLOG. The process is expected to take three years. Until now, SRS has been shipping hazardous waste off site for treatment and disposal, stored mixed waste on site and disposed of low-level radioactive waste on site. (The SRS Environmental Bulletin, May 9, 1997) NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE FOUND HOT SPOTS IN 12 STATES FROM 90 ABOVE GROUND BOMB TESTS. In a study demanded by watch dog groups, the Institute found that tens of thousands of cancer cases may have resulted. Those most exposed were children who drank iodine-contaminated milk. (U.S. News and World Report,, 8/11/97) NEW DATA ANGERS IDAHOANS OVER 1950'S BOMB TESTS. In early August the National Cancer Institute reported rain and high altitude winds brought more radioactive iodine to sparsely populated eastern Idaho and western Montana than to Nevada, site of the tests. (New York Times, 8/13/97) DOE PLANS TO "REINDUSTRIALIZE" SITES OF OAK RIDGE BOMB PLANTS. All the buildings that were part of the gaseous diffusion effort to separate uranium-235 from uranium-238 are to be turned into an East Tennessee Technology Park. By leasing land to private companies, DOE hopes the new tenants will provide cheaper cleanup than DOE can provide. Facilities are being leased that have only been partially decontaminated. (Orepa Newsletter, 5/97)M/p> OKLAHOMA URANIUM PROCESSING PLANT PUTS N-WASTE IN LIQUID FERTILIZER. Among many equally questionable ingredients in fertilizer spread over farm fields, this particular one was discovered when Mayor Patty Martin of Quincy, Wash. led an investigation by local farmers concerned about poor yields and sickly cattle. (Tallahassee Democrat, 7/7/97) A similar case involves dumping into a Denver sewage treatment plant liquid Rocky Flats radwaste, now declared non-hazardous, which had been stored in a Lowry Landfill. Separated sludge from the plant is to be sold as a "benevolent biosolid" to be spread on farmers' fields. (Sierra Club Environmental Justice Task Force, 7/21/97) HANFORD ADVISORY BOARD SEES PROBLEM WITH DOE'S TEN YEAR PLAN FOR speeding clean-up, points out that "the witch's brew that remains in the tanks, the soil, and the groundwater cannot all be magically removed, cleaned, or even stabilized in ten years. Forty years of nuclear production may require 40 years of cleanup." (Hanford Happenings, 2/97) REPACKAGED B-61-11 BOMB CAN DESTROY UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES. Former Asst. Sec. of Defense Ashton Carter says it's a "smaller yield replacement for an older, dirtier, bigger, less safe bomb." William Arkin, a nongovernmental expert on nuclear weapons, says it is too a new bomb, light enough to be carried by the B-2 stealth bomber. He fears the repackaged B-61 gives a provocative signal to the Russians at a time when we're trying to persuade them to approve Start II. (The Virginian-Pilot, 6/1/97) EARTH-PENETRATING B-61-11 NOT THE ONLY NUCLEAR WEAPON MODIFICATION IN THE PIPELINE. DOE's "Core Research and Advanced Technology Program Element Plans" is researching "concept design studies arising out of the experience during the Gulf War that indicate potential military utility for types of nuclear weapons not currently in the stockpile." (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September/October 1997) PENTAGON CRITICS SUGGEST SPENDING ON NUKES BE CUT TO SAVE MONEY but the administration argues that going below START II numbers would take the pressure to ratify the treaty off Moscow. (Navy Times, 7/7/97) NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES SAYS U.S. AND RUSSIA COULD REDUCE nuclear stockpiles to as few as 300 warheads each and help reduce the chances for the international proliferation of nuclear arms. The Academy also recommended that the U.S. clearly state it does not intend to be the first to use nuclear weapons. (Navy Times, 7/7/97) FOREIGN MILITARY WASTE RUSSIAN POLICE ARRESTED 20 PEOPLE FOR STEALING RADIOACTIVE CESIUM and mercury in May, the ITAR-Tass news agency has reported. The group is charged with stealing the radioactive materials from a chemical factory in Tambov, 250 miles south of Moscow. (Tallahassee Democrat, 5/30/97) RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER WANTS TO GIVE START II A CHANCE. Minister Igor Rodionov said in mid-May that he supports the START II nuclear arms agreement, even though it has not been ratified by the Russian parliament. He said he has "had some doubts" about the treaty but has come to see its benefits. (AP, 8/18/97) THOUSANDS OF LAUNCH READY WEAPONS ON HIGH LEVEL ALERT ON SEA AND LAND under both NATO and Russian control. With the decline of Russian command-and-control systems increasing the risk of technical malfunctions and early-warning system failures Yeltsin has said Russia was ready to curb alert status, and NATO Secretary General Javier Solana has said NATO and Russia "will talk about that issue in the NATO-Russian Joint Council" (in late September). (Christian Science Monitor, 8/13/97. GREENLAND OFFERS TO STORE SCRAPPED U.S. AND RUSSIAN WARHEADS. Its premier, Lars Emil Johansen says Greenland, a semi-autonomous state of Denmark, "doesn't want to be a dumping ground, but we would like to make our contribution to world peace." The idea was raised by the Rand Institute earlier this year and rejected by the Danish government. (The Virginian-Pilot, 6/22/97) IRAN'S FIRST NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SET TO BEGIN OPERATION. The plant in the southern port city of Busheehr is being completed mostly with Russian equipment in a $1 billion deal with Moscow opposed by the U.S. Iran has said its nuclear program is peaceful. (The Virginian-Pilot 7/8/9) Up to Top |
