[NukeNet] FLASH ACTION! ANTI-MOX LETTER group sign-ons

[MoJo]

FYI - I hope you all will sign on to this letter.  Remember reply to atom.girl at mindspring.com not to me!!!  Molly
   
  Hey Molly,

Tom Clements and Ed Lyman have drafted this great letter to press The Hill
to cancel the MOX program and support plutonium immobilization in the
upcoming continuing resolution meetings for Fiscal Year 2007.

DEADLINE THIS FRIDAY 10 a.m. for sign-ons. We will fax the letter Friday
morning and put out a press advisory. The letter we sent to Hobson 
thanking
him for cancelling MOX and funding immobilization had 80 sign-ons! You
signed that one and we hope you can rally quickly to sign this one, too.

Please send your sign up information directly to me at
atom.girl at mindspring.com

Thanks,
Glenn

*

Attention:  Appropriations Staffer

January XX, 2007

Senator Robert Byrd
Representative David Obey
Chairmen, Appropriations Committees
U.S. Congress
Washington, DC

IN BOLD & UNDERLINED & CENTERED: Elimination of DOE¹s Plutonium Fuel 
(MOX)
Program & Support for Plutonium Vitrification

Dear Chairmen Byrd and Obey,

As you assume the chairs of your respective Appropriations Committees and
address budget issues under the continuing resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year
2007, we are are writing to express our strong support for the elimination
of the Department of Energy´s (DOE) costly plutonium fuel (also called 
mixed
oxide or MOX) program now being considered for the Savannah River Site
(SRS).   In addition, we want to affirm support for a significant increase
in funding for the program to immobilize the U.S. ex-weapons plutonium
stockpile with high-level radioactive waste.

Given the extreme constraints imposed on the FY 2007 budget by the CR, 
major
savings can be made by eliminating the MOX program, which may be the most
expensive single project now being managed by DOE.  The proposed MOX plant
alone is estimated to cost around $4 billion, and given DOE's poor track
record, the costs are sure to rapidly escalate over the coming years.   By
eliminating the long-troubled MOX program, efforts can now be focused on 
the
immobilization of plutonium at SRS, which according to DOE's own estimates
would be cheaper than MOX for handling all excess plutonium.

The nation cannot afford to pursue both immobilization and MOX.  Since
immobilization is capable of disposing of both pure and impure plutonium,
while the MOX option is not, the choice of immobilization as the right 
path
forward is clear.  Moreover, immobilization also poses fewer environmental
and proliferation risks than the MOX option.

As you know, the Republican-controlled House voted last year to eliminate
the MOX program, but the Senate failed to act on this matter.  We 
recognize
the wisdom of this bi-partisan decision by the House and suggest that you
take it into full consideration during your decision-making process.   The
budget for MOX should be zeroed out for FY 2007 and a shut-down of the MOX
program should be funded from unspent prior-year balances. In the final FY
2007 Appropriations language, we urge you to state that DOE should
immediately begin to terminate the MOX program, halt efforts to begin
construction of the MOX plant at SRS, and choose immobilization as the
preferred option for plutonium disposition.  This decision should also
prevail in your deliberations on the FY 2008 DOE budget which is soon to 
be
presented to Congress.

Pursuit of a U.S. MOX program for the last ten years has failed to have 
the
intended impact of leading to the development of a parallel program in
Russia.  The G-8 has refused to fully fund the Russian MOX plant, the
Russian Duma has failed to ratify the liability agreement, and the 
Russians
have affirmed that they have no interest in a parallel program using MOX 
in
their light-water reactors, instead are pushing for construction of a 
costly
new plutonium breeder reactor, the BN-800, which they hope the U.S. will
build for them under the auspices of the misguided and stumbling Global
Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP).

As a coalition of national and regional groups concerned about the
environment, the economy and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, we have
been deeply troubled by DOE's blind pursuit of the problem-plagued MOX
program despite clear warning signs of its impending failure. We hope that
you will now take the opportunity to restore close oversight over this
expensive program and take action to guarantee that DOE quickly gets on 
with
immobilization of surplus plutonium at SRS.

We thank you for taking our views into consideration and look forward to
your making the sound fiscal decision to eliminate the MOX program once 
and
for all.

Sincerely,


cc:  
Senator Thad Cochran, Ranking Member, Senate Appropriations
Rep. Jerry Lewis, Ranking Member, House Appropriations
Rep. Peter Visclosky, Chair, Energy & Water Subcommittee
Rep. David Hobson, E & W Subcommittee


Signed,
Tom Clements
Nuclear Watch South

Dr. Edwin S. Lyman
Senior Staff Scientist
Union of Concerned Scientists



Posted:
-- 
Glenn Carroll
Coordinator
NUCLEAR WATCH SOUTH
(formerly GANE - Georgians Against Nuclear Energy)
P.O. Box 8574
Atlanta, GA 31106
PHONE/FAX: 404-378-4263
atom.girl at mindspring.com
http://www.nonukesyall.org/




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Each of the Iraqi children killed by the United States was our child. Each of the prisoners tortured in Abu Ghraib was our comrade. Each of their screams was ours. When they were humiliated, we were humiliated. The U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq - mostly volunteers in a poverty draft from small towns and poor urban neighborhoods - are victims just as much as the Iraqis of the same horrendous process, which asks them to die for a victory that will never be theirs": Source: Arundhati Roy, "Tide? Or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire," 

Molly Johnson 
6290 Hawk Ridge Place
San Miguel, CA  93451
Cell: 805 296-0524
 
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