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BLUE RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE LEAGUE
PO Box 88 ~
Glendale Springs, North Carolina 28629 ~ Phone
(336) 982-2691 ~ Fax (336) 982-2954 ~ Email:
BREDL@skybest.com
PRESS
RELEASE
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 16, 2001
CONTACT:
Don Moniak (803) 644-6953
Lou Zeller (336) 982-2691
GROUP REPORTS LITANY OF
IRREGULARITIES IN PLUTONIUM FUEL FACTORY LICENSE APPLICATION AND
REVIEW
Today, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League (BREDL) released documents challenging the
plutonium fuel factory proposed for the
Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River
Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. In a
letter written to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC), BREDL contends that the Duke
Cogema Stone and Webster (DCS) plutonium factory
license application is fatally flawed and should
be rejected. The group also contends that DOE
must complete a supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement.
BREDL maintains its position that the plutonium
fuel project is unnecessary and dangerous, and
advocates reallocating the hundreds of millions
of dollars to restore funding for plutonium
storage and immobilization. “The Department
of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
are allowing a dishonest use of U.S. nuclear
nonproliferation funding to subsidize a physical
and regulatory plutonium fuel infrastructure in
the U.S. and Russia,” said BREDL Community
Organizer Don Moniak of Aiken, South Carolina.
DOE’s Response on
Previously Unreported Radioactive Waste is
Inadequate
This past January BREDL
called upon DOE to halt the plutonium
fuel facility project because of the
massive estimated increase in liquid
radioactive waste generation during
plutonium purification operations (Figure
1); and the failure of the contractor,
Duke Cogema Stone and Webster (DCS) to
formulate a plan for treating and
disposing of the waste. In response to
BREDL’s letter documenting this
radical, expensive, and dangerous change,
DOE officials reported that it “anticipates a number
of changes” of this magnitude during the design
phase of the project. (http://www.bredl.org/sapc/SEIS_request011001.html)
“So far, DOE is overlooking the
contractual obligation Duke, Cogema, Stone and
Webster has to manage all radioactive waste, and NRC is
simply looking the other way,”
commented Lou Zeller of BREDL’s Glendale Springs,
North Carolina office.
NRC Failed to Respond to
License Application Deficiencies
Last month BREDL requested (letter
attached) that the NRC reject DCS’ Construction
Authorization Request, citing some of the following
concerns:
DCS is attempting to evade NRC
oversight of the radioactive waste management;
DCS justified its failure to
submit an emergency management plan by claiming
that the public radiation dose during a major accident
would be within regulatory limits--even though
the regulatory limits are 5-6 times greater than
the average annual “background”
radiation dose;
DCS based its application on the
environmental compliance history of Savannah
River Site, not on its own environmental record;
The plutonium fuel factory has no
licensed customers for its product;
DCS submitted a financial report
to the NRC for Fiscal Year 1999 but has yet to
submit a financial report for Fiscal year 2000.
Although the NRC wrote to BREDL on March
28 that “a response is under preparation
which will be forwarded to you shortly,” no
response has been forthcoming.
Representatives from BREDL will be available for media
interviews at the NRC’s public
meetings being held this week:
April 17 from 5-7 p.m. at
the North Augusta Community Center, 496 Brookside
Avenue, North Augusta, SC;
April 18 from 5-7 p.m. at
the Georgia Coastal Center, 305 Martin Luther
King Boulevard, Savannah, GA.
<end>
More info: BREDL March 23, 2001 letter to NRC Chairman
Richard Meserve requesting for NRC denial of MFFF
Construction Authorization Request
BREDL request for
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on Surplus
Plutonium Disposition and Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication
Facility
Southern Anti-Plutonium Campaign: http://www.bredl.org/sapc/index.html
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