At least 438 shipments of plutonium-enriched fuel could be shipped over the road from South Carolina to Soddy-Daisy or Athens, Ala., if the U.S. Department of Energy goes through with plans to use abandoned nuclear warheads to help power TVA plants.
During a public hearing Thursday night in the Chattanooga Convention Center, government supporters and environmental critics of the weapons-to-fuel proposal sparred over the risk of using weapons-grade plutonium as nuclear fuel.
The Energy Department is considering a plan to convert 13 metric tons of plutonium from abandoned nuclear weapons to produce a mixed-oxide fuel – called MOX – at its Savannah River site. The fuel produced from the warheads now stored in Texas and other Western states would be shipped to Savannah River, converted into nuclear fuel, then transported to either TVA’s Sequoyah or Browns Ferry nuclear plants by 2018.
But some aren’t so keen on the idea.
“Plutonium fuel requires transportation of weapons-grade plutonium and fuel across thousands of miles of open country, making transport vulnerable to terrorist attacks and theft,” said Louis Zeller, science director for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.