NRC PANEL RULES IN FAVOR OF MOX CONSTRUCTION LICENSE
NS&D Monitor
3/07/2014
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission legal panel late last week ruled in favor of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility contractor in a longstanding challenge to the facility’s license application over security concerns. The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board released an initial decision Feb. 27, but said that the details of the decision will need to be reviewed before release due to security concerns. The challenge stems back to May 2007, when groups including Nuclear Watch South, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and Nuclear Information Resource Service filed contentions to Shaw AREVA MOX Services’ NRC license to possess and use plutonium. The ASLB decision may still be appealed and must also be approved by the Commission.
MOX Services notes that a 2010 NRC safety evaluation report found adequate the MOX project’s procedures for protecting and accounting for nuclear materials. “We are very pleased with the licensing board’s decision which upholds the conclusion that the MOX facility meets the NRC’s regulations for nuclear material control and accounting,” MOX Services President Kelly Trice said in a statement. “Safety and security are top priorities in the design, construction and operation of the MOX facility.”
But challengers to the MOX license found the ruling disappointing. Glenn Carroll, coordinator of Nuclear Watch South, said in a statement: “The MOX program is supposed to be all about plutonium security and we are very curious to see how the panel resolved the stark disconnect between MOX Services’ plans for virtual computer-reliant plutonium accounting and the clear regulatory requirements for actual, physical plutonium accounting. The MOX program is proposed to process 50 tons of plutonium and only 15 pounds used as an explosive can obliterate a whole city. The devil is truly in the details with respect to MOX and this board decision truly matters.”
