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Nuclear Power Plants to Continue MOX Program Officials at Duke Power nuclear plants near Charlotte, S.C. said this week they plan to continue their mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) program, despite environmental groups’ claims that it is unsafe and could make the plant a terrorist target (see GSN, Oct. 7). The plant early next year plans to begin testing the fuel, which is being produced at a French reactor by converting weapon-grade plutonium into mixed uranium-plutonium oxide. The mixture still contains low levels of weapon-grade plutonium, according to the Associated Press. Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Executive Director Janet Zeller told the AP yesterday that her group remains opposed to the tests at the South Carolina nuclear power plant.
“Our organization is dedicated to stopping Duke from endangering the people around Charlotte,” she said.
“They are saying, ‘Trust us,’ and I don’t think we should,” she added. “They have given no reasons to trust them and they have made the Charlotte area a greater terrorist target.”
The fuel tests are to be conducted at the Catawba Nuclear Power Station in York, S.C., and the McGuire Nuclear Power Station in Huntersville, N.C.
The plants would be the first U.S. facilities to use MOX, which is used throughout Europe in more than 30 power reactors.
Duke officials said using MOX to generate electricity could consume surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons while reducing the risk of terrorist groups acquiring the radioactive materials.
Initially, MOX fuel would be used in only four of 193 fuel assemblies at the plants. If the tests are successful, the company could seek approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for expanded MOX use beginning around 2010, said Steven Nesbit, Duke Power’s MOX fuel project manager.
Bulletproof doors and a moat have been added around the Catawba plant since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to AP. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to hold a hearing on security concerns raised by project opponents, Nesbit said (Paul Nowell, Associated Press/York County, S.C., Herald, Oct. 13).
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