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DOE Reports Delays In MOX Program By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Department acknowledged to Congress last week delays in a U.S.-Russian effort to jointly eliminate about 70 tons of surplus weapon-grade plutonium (see GSN, Jan. 31). In a Feb. 7 letter sent to the leadership of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the department would not be able to meet a January 2009 objective to begin production of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. The United States and Russia have agreed to each eliminate 34 tons of plutonium through conversion to MOX fuel, which will be used to power civilian nuclear reactors. Bodman blamed the delay on the continuing dispute over who should accept liability for U.S. nonproliferation-related work in Russia. The dispute has disrupted “critical work” in Russia and has delayed the construction of MOX production facilities in both countries, he wrote. “Although we expect to settle liability in the near future, delays caused by this issue have made it impossible to meet the MOX production objective by January 2009,” Bodman wrote. Last year, then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham reported to Congress the department planned to resolve the liability dispute in time to meet the 2009 MOX production objective. “We are determined to resolve this issue in time to prevent slippages that will prevent us from meeting our 2009 commitments,” Abraham wrote. The U.S. State Department has recently provided Russia with a new proposal to resolve the liability dispute, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) in a Feb. 14 letter. She did not provide details of the new proposal. “The ball is now in Russia’s court,” she wrote. “A resolution would pave the way for settling other issues with Russia for plutonium disposition, as well as for other cooperative programs affected by this impasse.” The Energy Department since 2004 has been required to annually submit to Congress a report on the implementation of a 2003 construction and operations schedule for the planned U.S. MOX production facility, to be built at the department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The schedule called for the start of MOX fuel production by Jan. 1, 2009, the production of 1 metric ton of fuel by the end of that year, and the conversion of all 34 metric tons of plutonium by the start of 2019. Bodman told Congress last week that the Energy Department will need to “restructure the planned schedule and funding requirements that were contained in the 2003 plan.” “We will submit a revised construction and operation schedule to Congress within 120 days of resolving the liability issue,” Bodman wrote. Tom Clements, a senior adviser with Greenpeace International, praised the Energy Department last week for being “honest” with Congress over delays with the MOX program. “The modus operandi of DOE has been to hide the truth about the MOX program so we welcome a new approach based on honesty. Perhaps this is a signal that the new secretary will conduct DOE affairs in a way which is more open and accountable to Congress and the taxpayer,” Clements said in a statement. Earlier this week, the National Nuclear Security Administration announced the resignation of Ed Siskin, head of the Office of Fissile Material Disposition, which manages the U.S.-Russian plutonium disposition program. Despite the delays caused by the liability dispute, “significant progress has been made” in moving forward with the MOX program, Bodman wrote. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to issue a construction permit for the MOX production plant next month, both the United States and Russia are expected to begin “full site preparation activities” for their respective MOX plants in May and construction of the facilities is set to begin in 2006, he said in the letter. In addition, an effort to convert a test batch of more than 100 kilograms of U.S. plutonium to MOX fuel at a French facility is proceeding “on schedule” and the fuel is set to be used at a nuclear power plant in South Carolina beginning in May, Bodman wrote. “We have confidence in the entire plutonium disposition program,” NNSA spokesman Bryan Wilkes said Wednesday.
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