Plutonium fuel approved

State utilities show some interest, but critics are worried

By Jeremy Pearce / The Detroit News

    In a reversal of policy, federal energy officials are preparing U.S. utilities to burn plutonium fuel recycled from the nation's Cold War nuclear arsenal.
    Michigan utilities that operate reactors are expressing guarded interest, saying few technical obstacles block use of the fuel.
    But anti-nuclear activists in Michigan and across the country are mobilizing to sway opinion and block the plan. They say transporting the fuel threatens public safety en route and poses a security risk once plutonium is delivered to reactors.
    "This is not a trivial issue. Reactors have to be relicensed to take the fuel. You can't relax those rules -- there's a lot here to be discussed," said Rodney Ewing, a University of Michigan nuclear engineer.
    Critics fear road accidents, fire and even terrorism, despite assurances from federal scientists about security and safety. One concern is that terrorists may try to steal the fuel to extract the plutonium critical in making bombs.
    At issue is the safe disposal of thousands of warheads mothballed by the United States as part of agreements with Russia. A U.S. Department of Energy plan calls for burying one-third of the plutonium and using the rest for fuel.
    The fuel could generate commercial power in this country as soon as next spring. Two utilities, Virginia Power and Duke Energy Corp. of North Carolina, recently placed bids to burn the fuel, called MOX -- shorthand for mixed oxide, a combination of plutonium and uranium.
    "None of the safety issues is insurmountable, and there are tremendous benefits to using MOX," said Leigh Ann Marshall of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a lobbying group that represents utilities nationwide.
    "The plutonium could be rendered useless, and the dismantling of nuclear weapons would be a contribution to world peace," Marshall said from Washington.
    In Michigan, at least two utilities are greeting the plan with mild encouragement. No utility in the state has applied to burn the fuel, but reactor operators don't rule it out.
    Consumers Energy, which runs the Pallisades reactor in South Haven, supports use of the fuel. "We can burn MOX right now, but the decision is going to come down to costs," said Robert Fenech, a senior vice-president and trained reactor operator.
    American Electric Power, which runs two reactors at the D.C. Cook facility in Bridgman, maintains "an open mind." Detroit Edison, which owns the Fermi II and closed Fermi I reactors near Metro Detroit, raises questions about the MOX program, but remains undecided.
    "We'd always be open to exploring this possibility," said Guy Cerullo, a Detroit Edison spokesman. "It's a noble cause and a good fit for some nuclear plants, but maybe not for us."
    Plutonium is a man-made metal first fabricated during the 1940s. More than twice as dense as lead, it is favored for making nuclear weapons because of its potential for releasing huge amounts of energy. Two pounds of plutonium, for example, will create as much power as 3,800 tons of coal.
    That potency provokes doomsday fears.
    "MOX fuel is the most gigantic liability on the face of the Earth today," said Joanne Beemon, a Charlevoix resident who sits on the Consumers Energy citizen advisory board.
    "Backers paint this pretty picture of all the plutonium just going away. What about the waste? The U.S. still doesn't have a central depository to safely take nuclear waste from all of our commercial reactors." In September, a band of Michigan communities, including Port Huron, St. Clair Shores and Marysville, petitioned federal energy officials to reroute test shipments of MOX fuel scheduled to cross the Blue Water Bridges to reactors in Canada.
    Last month, officials relented, halted their plan and chose routes outside Michigan.
    "Burning weapons-grade plutonium is just another scheme to pump up a dying nuclear industry," said Mike Keegan, chairman of the Coalition for a Nuclear-free Great Lakes, a group based in Monroe.
    "Instead of burning it and exposing the public to it, we need to isolate the plutonium and to monitor it -- forever."
    According to federal plans, truck shipments of MOX would not be guarded, but tracked by satellite from a monitoring site in Tennessee. The fuel would be packed in the form of pellets within metal rods, which would be placed in a metal box designed to survive crashes, fires and immersion in water.
    Still, Michigan officials whose job it is to respond to emergencies have questions about the Energy Department plan, which doesn't need presidential or congressional approval.
    "Whether we're prepared for weapons-grade plutonium is a very good question," said Richard Mahaney, instructor at the Michigan State Police's Hazardous Materials Training Center in Lansing.
    Mahaney and others train firefighters, police and county officials across the state for disasters expected to involve explosives or chemicals.
    "Radiological emergencies are unique situations, and we don't practice for plutonium. Unlike chemicals, these are hazards that you can't see, smell or taste," he said.
    Yet before the new fuel can be used, utilities must confront questions of cost and conversion. Although most commercial reactors have the technical capability of taking MOX, relatively reasonable prices for uranium worldwide turn the choice into a business decision, utility executives say.
    Add to that costs for relicensing by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and prospects for widespread use of the plutonium fuel become even dimmer unless the government steps in.
    "Retrofitting and relicensing would absolutely have to be financed," said Leigh Ann Marshall of the Nuclear Energy Institute. "The economic incentive for utilities would have to be there."
    Such incentives could include federal subsidies for taking plutonium or help in the form of artificially low government prices for MOX fuel.
    The result, critics say, is a taxpayer-supported nuclear industry that creates problems for future generations with a legacy of long-lived radioactive waste.
    "That's extremely alarming. No commercial use of plutonium has been a national policy for a long, long time. Do we really want to start using it now?" asked Linda Pentz of the Safe Energy Communication Council, a Washington group opposed to the plan.
    Economics aside, foreign policy specialists say the price of burning plutonium may be cheaper than utilities figure. Disposal of about 50 metric tons of U.S. plutonium is key to an agreement with Russian officials for disposing of their own plutonium.
    Not all of the 50 tons can be buried, specialists say. Nearly two-thirds must be destroyed to adhere to the U.S.-Russian agreement.
    "There's a diplomatic aspect to the MOX problem," said Wilfrid Kohl, director of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
    "The arms-control argument for MOX is overwhelming. From that view, you can figure it as the cost of our survival."

The plutonium controversy

    Federal plans to recycle nuclear warheads into fuel for utility reactors are provoking debate. The fuel could be used in the U.S. as early as next year.
    Proponents say:
   * The plan furthers U.S.-Russian nuclear disarmament.
   * U.S. subsidies may make plutonium a low-cost energy source.
   * European reactors already use the fuel.
    Opponents say:
   * The volume of plutonium fuel would increase on the nation's roads, raising safety concerns.
   * There is a security risk for utilities because plutonium is a target for terrorist theft.
   * Commercial reactors would have to be relicensed to use new fuel, an often costly and lengthy process.

What's ahead

    U.S. Department of Energy officials are evaluating applications by two American utilities to burn plutonium fuel. As anti-nuclear groups press for storage -- not use -- of Cold War plutonium, utility executives are watching to see if accepting the fuel will have economic benefits.

Plutonium's dangers and uses

    A man-made metal first fabricated by U.S. scientists during the 1940s, plutonium is valued for use in weapons and commercial reactors because of its potential for yielding energy.
   * Two pounds of plutonium can create as much energy as 3,800 tons of coal.
   * With a radioactive half-life of more than 24,000 years, weapons-grade plutonium is highly radioactive and requires sophisticated safeguards for storage and handling. Half-life refers to the time it takes for half of the material's radioactivity to subside.
   * Other dangers come from inhaling or ingesting plutonium particles, connected to leukemia and bone-marrow disorders.