testing plutonium fuel with a Nuclear reactor which is, "substantially more likely to fail than other U.S. plants"

KRT Wire | 05/27/2005 | Nuclear reactor prepares to test fuel with plutonium: "A 2000 study for the NRC concluded that nuclear plants designed like Catawba and McGuire are substantially more likely to fail in certain types of accidents. Both plants would use ice to condense escaping radioactive steam, relieving internal pressure. But their outer shells of concrete and steel aren't designed to withstand the same pressures as most other U.S. plants, which rely solely on stronger shells.

'Those ice condensers are still as dangerous as they were in 2000,' Lyman said.

Nesbit, Duke's project manager, said the company never accepted the report's finding because it was based on overly pessimistic assumptions. The NRC has said the plants' risks remain within safe boundaries.

If Duke expands its MOX use, fuel shipments to Catawba and McGuire would contain enough weapons material for thousands of nuclear bombs.

Critics say trucking plutonium to and from the fuel-making facility at the Savannah River Site, about 135 miles south of Charlotte, invites terrorism. The test fuel was made in France. A secretive federal agency that says it has logged 1.6 million miles successfully hauling nuclear material around the country will truck the fuel to Duke's plants.

MOX's low plutonium concentration, packaged inside 1,500-pound fuel assemblies, doesn't make it an inviting terrorist target, the NRC says.

MOX makes environmental sense because it recycles plutonium that had already been created when conventional fuel was burned, said Rosa Yang of the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry research center.

'You would hope that Duke would quickly use up this material so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands,' she said. 'I find it strange for people to be against it.'

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