Given the Obama Administration’s intent to suspend the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project, South Carolina says the weapons-grade plutonium in the state may need to be reclassified as waste and disposed of within a year. The plutonium was intended to be converted by MOX into fuel for use in nuclear reactors, but given the Department of Energy’s plans to put MOX into a “cold standby” the material may instead be reclassified as mixed waste. “If the material contains hazardous waste, the Department of Energy must dispose of it properly within one year, or keep MOX open to avoid the reclassification.,” South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Director Catherine Templeton said in a statement.
SDHEC asked DOE to clarify the status of the plutonium feed intended for MOX. “As the project is not moving forward, the technologically feasible options for the material scheduled to be processed at MOX appear to be either disposal or accumulation before disposal,” the state wrote DOE in letter Friday. “Given this new information, DOE should clarify the waste status of the plutonium and plutonium mixtures at Savannah River Site and describe how the material will be handled going forward.”