Slowdown On Plutonium Plant Plan

(CBS)  The agency that oversees the nation's commercial nuclear reactors says there is no guarantee that a controversial federal program to turn plutonium from nuclear weapons into fuel for reactors will ever start.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expressed its concerns in a memorandum filed in a relicensing case last week. Gov. Jim Hodges' office says it validates his fight to keep federal shipments of plutonium out of the state, a fight that could lead to a showdown with federal officials next month.

The regulatory agency agreed with Duke Energy Corp., which also worries whether a program to convert the plutonium at the federal nuclear facility called the Savannah River Site will fail before it begins. The Savannah River Site is south of Aiken, near the Georgia state line.

Duke Energy's concerns were filed as part of the utility's plans to relicense several nuclear power plants that would use the new form of fuel made from weapons-grade plutonium, company spokesman Tom Shiel said. The new nuclear fuel is called mixed oxide or MOX.

In its memo, the NRC wrote that agency officials "see no reason to doubt Duke's statement that its submittal of a MOX license amendment application is uncertain."

Cortney Owings, Hodges' spokeswoman, said the NRC and Duke misgivings about the feasibility of converting to use of MOX "validate Governor Hodges' position" against allowing plutonium into the state.

"There are a lot of questions that need to be answered involving this process," she told The New York Times.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has said his intention is to begin shipments of 76 trailer loads of plutonium from the former nuclear weapons facility in Rocky Flats, Colo., to South Carolina shortly after May 15. The shipments would continue through June 2003.

Hodges, a Democrat, wants Abraham to sign documents that could be enforced by the courts assuring the plutonium won't be stranded in South Carolina if the Energy Department changes its plans. He has said he is ready to send state troopers to intercept the truckloads or even lie in the road himself to stop them.

Abraham says he would commit to taking the plutonium out of the state if the plan falls through, but does not want courts to be involved in national security decisions.

Department of Energy spokesman Joe Davis said the government is so committed to the MOX program that it has pledged to spend $4 billion over the next 20 years.

"This is the policy of the United States," he said.

Besides, he said, the NRC's doubts about the program are Hodges' fault. "It's because the governor won't agree to allow us to move forward," he said.

The MOX program is part of an international arms agreement between the U.S. and Russia in which each country pledged to convert some of their plutonium used to arm nuclear missiles into fuel.