The "Uranium Supply Crunch" is worsening. The anticipated supply crunch has contributed to the drive for Mox fuel, in addition to the desire by the DoD to "recycle" plutonium and uranium from nuclear weapons.
Commercial reactor operators have been reluctant to incorporate Mox because it burns hotter and is more risk prone. However, in the context of an uranium deficit and DoD pressure, commercial plants may succumb, particularly if enticed with government guarantees.
Below find documentation of the uranium crunch, US efforts to re-process nuclear weapons into fuel, and an analysis of the dangers of mox fuel
"Uranium Supply Crunch" documented here:
A government "fact" sheet dated Feb 2011 on Mox as converting "Swords to Plowshares" is available here:
The government fact sheet asserts these benefits from Mox:
"In addition to its critical nonproliferation benefits, the U.S. MOX strategy supports additional NNSA and DOE missions by:
- Facilitating Complex Transformation efforts to reduce the size of the NNSA nuclear security enterprise by consolidating materials to SRS from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Pantex Plant, the Hanford Site, and the Rocky Flats Site;
- Establishing the capability to dispose of additional plutonium from future weapons dismantlements; and
- Disposing of surplus U.S. weapon-grade plutonium demonstrates that the United States is living up to its nonproliferation commitments by drawing down its nuclear arsenal in a transparent and irreversible manner."
As evident here, the sole goal of getting rid of stored plutonium appears to be driving the government program.
The "white elephant" Savannah re-processing plant, designed to generate plutonium from weapons for Mox fuel, is critiqued for its spending and market positioning here. The plant construction broke ground in 2007:
Trento, (2011, ). The Bomb Plant: A Mox White Elephant"
[excerpted] "The National Nuclear Security Administration may have a $10 billion
taxpayer-financed white elephant on its hands based on Britain’s
experience with a similar plant that has been shuttered after a decade
of failed operations.
"NNSA is building a French-designed plant to convert plutonium
warheads into mixed oxide (MOX) reactor fuel at the Department of
Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina. The United
States’ MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility is over budget – already double
the estimated costs – behind schedule and still has no commercial
customers for the fuel. But the DOE is pushing ahead with construction
at a time when international nuclear utilities are shuttering their
failed MOX programs...
...MOX is made by combining uranium with plutonium extracted from spent
reactor fuel or recycled from unused nuclear weapons. The reactor
meltdown eliminated customers for the fuel. Japanese plutonium stored at
Sellafield appears to have little future as reactor fuel for that
country. Prior to Fukushima, MOX was used in about two percent of the
fuel burned in reactors" [end quote]
The dangers of Mox are documented here, as well as the non-necessity of nuclear fuel. We don't need nuclear.
Kozo, M. & Polimeni, J. M. (2012, Jan). Uranium reserve,
nuclear fuel cycle delusion, CO2 emissions from
the sea, and electricity supply: Reflections after the fuel meltdown of the
Fukushima Nuclear Power Units.
Ecological Economics, 73, 1-6.
Abstract: The Great Tohoku–Kanto earthquake and the
resulting tsunami have brought considerable attention to the issue of building
new nuclear power plants. In this paper we argue that nuclear
power is not a sustainable solution to energy problems. First, we
explore the stock of uranium-235 and the different methods, fast breeder and MOX
fuel reactors, developed by the nuclear power industry to exploit
this resource. Second, we show that these fuel reactors are not feasible.
Third, we show that the claim that nuclear energy can be used to reduce
CO2 emissions is false: the emissions from the increased
water evaporation from nuclear power generation must be accounted
for. In the case of Japan, water from nuclear power plants is
drained into the surrounding sea, raising the water temperature which has an
adverse effect on the immediate ecosystem, as well as increasing
CO2 emissions from increased water evaporation from the
sea. Next, a short exercise is used to show that nuclear power is
not needed to meet electricity demand in Japan. Such an exercise should be
performed for any country considering the construction of additional nuclear
power plants. Lastly, the paper is concluded with a discussion of the
implications of our paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
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