nuclear-news

MOX plutonium nuclear reprocessing plants for Tennessee and Alabama?

TVA considering fuel made from nuclear weapons http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/ap/energy/tva-considering-fuel-made-from-nuclear-weapons/nP3m5/   CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Department of Energy is preparing an environmental impact statement on the use of fuel made from surplus nuclear weapons to power Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear plants. TVA released a set of talking points on Tuesday about the environmental impact statement, which will appear as a draft this week in the Federal Register, TVA spokesman Ray Golden told The Chattanooga Times Free Press (http://bit.ly/MGUFrO ).

The mixed oxide fuel, also called MOX fuel, is a blend of plutonium and uranium, but the variety under consideration is made from retired nuclear weapons, according to the TVA.
The utility has tentatively agreed to consider using the fuel in its Sequoyah and Browns Ferry nuclear plants in Tennessee and Alabama, with a timetable set for 2018.
“TVA is willing to consider using mixed oxide fuel if it meets three
criteria: It is operationally and environmentally safe; economically
beneficial to TVA customers; and licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission,” Golden said.
TVA is a cooperating agency in the impact statement.
Some critics of the MOX fuel, which is a hotter fuel blend, say it
makes reactors harder to control.
“The use of this experimental fuel in TVA’s aging reactors could have
negative safety reactions,” said Tom Clements, an environmental
advocate for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.
Golden said MOX fuel made from spent nuclear fuel and uranium has been
tried in Europe and briefly used in a commercial reactor owned by Duke
Energy.
The blended fuel will be produced at the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility
in Aiken, S.C., which is in its fifth year of construction and due to
start producing fuel in 2016.
Despite the fact that the facility being built to produce the fuel has
a nearly $5 billion price tag, Golden said TVA expects the MOX fuel to
be cheaper than the simple uranium it was blended with because the
price would be negotiated in a TVA/Department of Energy contract.
The DOE would also bear the cost for TVA to use and store the fuel.
But Clements argued that DOE may give the fuel to TVA at a “bargain
basement” price because “nobody else will take it (MOX), but the
American taxpayers have already paid dearly for it.”
The plant will use U.S. weapons-grade plutonium, created by a surplus
of plutonium after the Cold War, to manufacture the nuclear fuel. The
company that is building the plant at the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Savannah River Site is Shaw Areva MOX Services LLC.
The design of the South Carolina plant is based on MOX facilities in
France, where the fuel has been used for almost two decades.
TVA has been discussing the possibility of using the fuel since 2009
and had public meetings on the idea in 2010.
NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre said TVA must apply for license amendments
at the Sequoyah and Browns Ferry plants to use the MOX fuel, but those
applications have not yet been made. McIntyre said the review process
would take one to two years.

July 26, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | reprocessing, USA