Obama Administration ‘Jeopardizing’ Partnership between Savannah River Site and South Carolina, Georgia over Plutonium Disposition
WASHINGTON
– The United States senators representing the states of South Carolina
and Georgia – Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Tim Scott (R-South
Carolina), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) and Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia)
today warned that the Obama administration is jeopardizing the 60-year
partnership between the Savannah River Site and both states over its
interest in changing the agreed-upon plan to dispose of surplus
weapons-grade plutonium.
In
2000, with the signing of the Plutonium Management and Disposition
Agreement (PDMA) with the Russian Federation, the United States and
Russia agreed to dispose of 68 metric tons of weapons-grade
plutonium. The United States’ plan would send American plutonium to the
Savannah River Site (SRS) where it would be turned into commercial
nuclear fuel (MOX).
In
2010, President Obama hailed the plutonium disposition agreement in a
joint press conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and noted
it prevented terrorists from acquiring these materials. Now, the Obama
administration is seemingly backing away from the MOX program and the
agreements made with the state of South Carolina.
-
Delays to the MOX program threaten American national security;
-
Potential alternatives to MOX have already been studied and they fail to meet our economic or nonproliferation needs;
-
Reassessment of the MOX program adds billions of additional costs and uncertainty domestically; and
-
Plans to again study plutonium disposition alternatives destroy 60 years of collaboration with South Carolina and the Savannah River Site.
“It is
with great dismay that your Fiscal Year 2014 budget request risks the
future of the PMDA and the MOX program,” wrote the senators. “Your
budget request will result in the breaking of our international
agreement with Russia, the stranding of up to 68 metric tons of weapons
grade plutonium, the addition of billions of dollars in increased costs
to the government, and the violation of commitments the federal
government has made to the state of South Carolina. This is
unacceptable and we will be looking to use the confirmation,
authorization, and appropriations processes to ensure the program moves
forward.”
“A
fundamental component to the MOX project involves assurances to South
Carolina regarding the ultimate disposition of the plutonium,” said the
senators. “Never before has the local community had their faith in DOE
and SRS tested as they do now. The delays in the MOX program have
caused the community to once again fear that the plutonium currently in
state will remain there indefinitely.
“The
residents of South Carolina and Georgia have always been willing
partners of DOE in carrying out missions critical to our national
security at SRS,” wrote the senators. “The residents of the states have
never hesitated to support the mission of SRS even though it resulted
in the shipment, storage, and use of some of the most dangerous items
known to man. In fact, the community surrounding the site is widely
regarded as the most supportive community of any DOE site in the
country. We want to be able to continue this partnership.”
#####
Full text of the letter to President Obama:
May 13, 2013
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
On
June 24, 2010, on the heels of your Nuclear Security Summit, where you
trumpeted a major non-proliferation agreement with Russia, you held a
joint press conference with Russian President Medvedev, and stated that,
“…to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons, we came
together at our Nuclear Security Summit, where our two nations made
numerous commitments, including agreeing to eliminate enough plutonium
for about 17,000 nuclear weapons.” This statement was the culmination
of years of work that began in 2000 with the signing of the Plutonium
Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) with Russia to dispose of 68
metric tons of weapons grade plutonium. The program involved sending
plutonium to the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina where it
would be turned into commercial nuclear fuel at the Mixed Oxide Fuel
Fabrication Facility (MOX).
Now
it is with great dismay that your Fiscal Year 2014 budget request risks
the future of the PMDA and the MOX program. Your budget request will
result in the breaking of our international agreement with Russia, the
stranding of up to 68 metric tons of weapons grade plutonium, the
addition of billions of dollars in increased costs to the government,
and the violation of commitments the federal government has made to the
state of South Carolina. This is unacceptable and we will be looking to
use the confirmation, authorization, and appropriations processes to
ensure the program moves forward.
Your
recently submitted budget request calls for slowing down the MOX
project while the Administration conducts an assessment of alternative
plutonium disposition strategies. Officials at the Department of Energy
(DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have been
unable to explain exactly what this means. They are unable to provide
an idea as to who will conduct the study, the length of the study, or
the options being studied. They are unable to explain what the impact
of the budget request will have on the construction of the facility, the
impact on the schedule for the disposition of plutonium, or a cost
estimate for the increased storage costs due to any additional delays
that result from the study. Additionally, nobody has been able to
explain how the Administration plans to comply with Section 4306 of the
Atomic Energy Defense Act (50 USC 2566) which mandates at least one
metric ton of plutonium be processed through MOX or be removed from
South Carolina by 2016 or the federal government will be liable for
fines to South Carolina of up to $100 million per year.
While
we would like to work with you and the contractor to reduce
construction and operating costs at MOX, make no mistake; the decision
to slow down the plutonium disposition project makes no sense from a
national security or an economic point of view. Your decision violates
the commitments that were made to South Carolina and jeopardizes a
60-year partnership between the Savannah River Site (SRS) and the
state. We will not allow this ill-conceived plan to proceed.
Delays to the MOX program threaten our national security
As a result of your budget request, the U.S. will be forced to notify Russia that it cannot meet the 2018 start date of plutonium disposition as set forth in the PMDA or conversely, that it is withdrawing from its obligations under the PMDA. In turn, this can be expected to cause Russia to slow down or halt its plutonium disposition efforts. If this were to happen, 34 metric tons of surplus Russian plutonium would then become available for re-use in nuclear weapons or become subject to an increased risk of theft or diversion.
In
addition, delaying plutonium disposition sends a strong signal to the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the world community that
the U.S. is walking back on its support for nuclear nonproliferation.
Delaying
or canceling MOX eliminates the means by which the U.S. is able to
dispose of additional quantities of surplus weapons grade plutonium from
future stockpile reductions and/or Arms Control Agreements.
Reassessment of the MOX program adds billions of additional costs and uncertainty domestically
While
we share your concern about the cost increases associated with the
plutonium disposition program, your budget request does nothing to
reduce these costs.
A
decision to significantly delay construction of the MOX facility would
likely kill the overall plutonium disposition effort and leave the U.S.
with no means to dispose of its stocks of surplus weapons grade
plutonium. This would leave 34 metric tons of plutonium stranded with no
disposition path at SRS in South Carolina, Pantex in Texas, and other
sites across the country. As a result, the government will be forced to
continue its current program of storing and monitoring this nuclear
material indefinitely. The storage of this material alone costs
hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
A
decision to slow down or halt MOX construction can be expected to have
an adverse impact on operations at Pantex which currently stores the
U.S. inventory of surplus and non-surplus plutonium pits. A significant
fraction of Pantex’s pit inventory is destined for fabrication into MOX
fuel on a just-in-time processing basis. Furthermore, current and
expected future declines in the active stockpile are expected to
increase the number of pits already stored at Pantex, creating a need
for tens and perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars to design and
construct safe, secure additional pit storage capacity at Pantex in the
event that plutonium disposition at SRS does not take place.
Consequently,
any significant delay to MOX construction or concomitant funding
reduction would lead to the lay off of hundreds of highly-skilled
nuclear craft workers employed on the project, workers it takes years
and significant cost to hire and train.
Studies
on how best to dispose of surplus plutonium have been ongoing since
1995. In 2001, a study prepared for the National Security Council by
NNSA, Analysis of Options for U.S. and Russian Plutonium Management and
Disposition, evaluated more than 40 approaches for plutonium disposition
with 12 distinct options selected for detailed analysis, i.e., six
mixed-oxide (MOX)-based reactor disposition options, two advanced
reactor disposition options, and four non-reactor options
(immobilization and long-term storage). MOX has always been the best
option to meet our nonproliferation goals at the best cost to the
taxpayer.
Any
alternative to MOX would add years to the plutonium disposition process
and would come with additional complications. For example, if the
government were to pursue vitrification, it would take years of
additional research and development in order to research, design,
license and construct a vitrification facility. This would be further
complicated by the fact that according to NNSA,
vitrification/immobilization is no longer an option because there are
insufficient quantities of high level waste (HLW) in the SRS waste tanks
to immobilize over 40 metric tons of weapons grade plutonium.
Vitrification also fails to meet the nonproliferation goals of putting
the plutonium beyond re-use.
With
the half-life of plutonium being 24,000 years, the most expensive
option was long-term storage because it requires the expenditure of many
millions of dollars a year for storage, security, and health physics
after which, the U.S. government would still have to pay for
disposition.
Importantly,
your current plan will destroy over 60 years of collaboration with
South Carolina and Georgia. The residents of South Carolina and Georgia
have always been willing partners of DOE in carrying out missions
critical to our national security at SRS. The residents of the states
have never hesitated to support the mission of SRS even though it
resulted in the shipment, storage, and use of some of the most dangerous
items known to man. In fact, the community surrounding the site is
widely regarded as the most supportive community of any DOE site in the
country. We want to be able to continue this partnership.
A
fundamental component to the MOX project involves assurances to South
Carolina regarding the ultimate disposition of the plutonium. Never
before has the local community had their faith in DOE and SRS tested as
they do now. The delays in the MOX program have caused the community to
once again fear that the plutonium currently in state will remain there
indefinitely.
During
your first term, you made an effort to focus the government’s attention
on securing the supply of nuclear weapons around the world.
Cancellation of the MOX program after investing 17 years to study
disposition alternatives, completing the necessary environmental
reviews, designing the facility, obtaining the necessary Nuclear
Regulatory Commission construction license, appropriating and spending
hundreds of millions in the effort and completing more that 60% of the
actual MOX Facility would be a terrible blemish on DOE’s reputation for
completing major construction projects. After signing an agreement with
Russia that has been ratified by the Duma, getting the Director General
of the IAEA to agree to monitor plutonium disposition in each country
and testifying for years to Congress and the American public about the
urgent need to eliminate surplus weapons-usable fissile materials in
speeches by various Presidents, National Security Advisers, Secretaries
of Energy, Secretaries of State and other senior U.S. government
officials, to now cancel the MOX Project would be a major domestic and
international embarrassment which will take years to recover from.
Sincerely,
Lindsey Graham
Tim Scott
Saxby Chambliss
Johnny Isakson
http://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=a8f99c66-ad7f-9e32-9326-c600d025ecac&Region_id=&Issue_id=
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