DOE Decision to Dispose of Unirradiated Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Stored at Los Alamos National Lab in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant must be Reviewed in Environmental Impact Statement and Non-Proliferation Assessment
Unprecedented Disposal as Waste of Useless Test MOX Fuel, Containing Weapon-Grade Plutonium, Raises Security and Environmental Questions, Closes another Chapter on DOE’s Bungled MOX Project
Update on September 24: NNSA now claims the MOX at Los Alamos contains 26.4 kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium. As no environmental analysis or security/non-proliferation assessments have been provided, SRS Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for them. DOE must provide documentation to the public for justification of its efforts to send this weapon-grade, fresh MOX fuel to WIPP, apparently without environmental or security documentation. FOIA posted here: SRS Watch FOIA on fresh MOX at LANL Sep 24 2020
September 23, 2020 new release: Columbia, South Carolina – According to a recently released environmental document by the U.S. Department of Energy, the agency plans to dump unused plutonium fuel into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The uranium-plutonium fuel, called mixed oxide (MOX), is now stored at the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL). As its disposal in WIPP would be unprecedented, a full environmental and security review is merited, according to the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch in Columbia, South Carolina.
Link to full SRS Watch news release of September 23, 2020: SRS Watch news on MOX LTAs to WIPP September 23 2020
DOE photo: SRS Watch director and colleagues from the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and DOE officials in the WIPP facility, October 1, 2015