Initials can often easily be recognized and save a lot of time. NFL and IRS are on the tips of almost everyone’s tongue. If you’ve ever received a speeding ticket then you likely know DMV and SHP as well as you know your own name. Just about everyone knows that DOE is the Department of Energy, that wonderful federal agency responsible for everything from heating your home, fueling your car, regulating oil production and keeping your lights on. MOX is one you may not be so familiar with, and there is probably good reason for that.

MOX are the initials used by DOE for its new energy experiment in cooperation with Duke Energy. The letters stand for Mixture of Oxides of enriched uranium plus plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons. This witches brew is the latest brainchild concocted to be used in commercial nuclear reactors to produce electricity. A great idea some will proclaim, the peaceful atom at its best, converting fuel for bombs to blow-dryers. There are however some unanswered questions looming and some concerns for mountain residents.

Plutonium from several states will be transported through the Carolinas and Georgia to the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., for production of MOX. Those materials from the Midwest, Tennessee and Kentucky will likely travel Interstate 40 from Johnson City through north Haywood County, Waynesville, Asheville then south on Interstate 26 through Spartanburg and Columbia. Once processed, MOX will be transported to Duke’s aging Catawba and McGuire reactors. These reactors are within 15 miles of Charlotte and 100 miles of Asheville.

There are problems beyond having our highways loaded with weapons grade plutonium from H-bombs, which based on the amount of traffic and number of accidents I see each day, should be enough to get the attention of mountain folks. MOX fuel generates more high-energy particles (neutrons) than the usual uranium fuels. This will cause more rapid deterioration of reactor parts, making containment a more difficult and dangerous proposition.

A recent study by the Nuclear Control Institute found that an accidental release at a MOX reactor would cause as much as double the number of fatal cancers than an identical release from a uranium fueled reactor because of the more dangerous transuranic elements involved.

Although some plutonium would be “used” in the reaction process, additional plutonium will actually be produced by the process from the uranium. This plutonium, along with a host of other toxic substances, will add to our already huge problem of waste disposal and storage.

One part of this equation that scares me is that this is an untested technology, never tried at any existing nuclear facility. Neither DOE nor Duke really know what to expect from the reaction, the by-products, or any full measure of the security and safety of the system or the transportation hazards and risks.

The other part that really strikes fear to my core is that DOE would provide the MOX radioactive soup to Duke at no cost, and might even provide subsidies for the experiment. This puts all the costs of transport, production, clean-up, storage, accident hazard, environmental damage and long-term liability on the American taxpayer. We’re talking billions and billions here. But we don’t mind paying higher taxes, do we?

An article in the Aug. 25 edition of the Charlotte Observer (page B-1) noted that costs associated with the project have continued to rise since DOE signed a contract for $116 million in 1999 to design and license the manufacturing facility in South Carolina, and this past Tuesday South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges wrote President Bush to protest that South Carolina might get stuck with the plutonium if the program folds. I have to ask how much more taxpayer money must the administration squander before it exercises some common sense with our tax dollars and the public health?

I hope this information scares or angers everyone enough that you will contact your representatives, the governor and the president and tell them that we would like a few more assurances that we won’t be paying all the economic, social and environmental costs ourselves. Then tell them we don’t appreciate having our entire region put at risk from accidents, terrorism, miscalculations and untried technologies.
On the other hand, we can still turn our heads and look the other way.

(Author’s note: For additional information contact Dr. L.E. Patrie, MD, president of the WNC Physicians for Social Responsibility at patrie.wncpsr@main.nc.us; and NIX MOX campaign coordinator Mary Olson in Asheville 251.2060)

John Beckman is a building contractor and Operations Manager at Unahwi Ridge Community/Pomme de Terre Farm in Jackson County. Contact him at www.unahwiridge.com

 

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