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DOE to Resume Production of Plutonium-238

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
The Associated Press
Monday, June 27, 2005; 5:11 PM

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is moving to resume production of plutonium-238 as an energy source for spacecraft and some national security activities, because existing supplies will be virtually gone in five years.

The department said a decision on production of plutonium-238, reaffirmed last year, "will not be revisited" and that production activities should be consolidated at the government's Idaho National Laboratory to increase security.

A final decision on consolidation is expected later this year by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, department spokesman Mike Waldron said Monday.

But Waldron reiterated that the decision to resume production of plutomiun-238 was made years ago and reaffirmed last year because it has become clear current stocks of the unique isotope will be depleted shortly after 2010.

Plutonium-238 is not used for nuclear weapons, but its steady, virtually infinite release of heat during decay makes the isotope valuable as a heat source to produce electricity in spacecraft and for some satellites that are unable to rely on the sun as an energy source. It is many times more radioactive than weapons-grade plutonium-239, however, and ingesting a speck can be fatal.

The United States stopped producing plutonium-238 when it shut the last weapons reactor at the Savannah River complex in South Carolina in the mid-1990s. Instead it has relied on existing stockpiles and a supply provided by Russia that is limited to use by NASA in the space program.

Currently the government has about 87 pounds of plutonium-238 but expects all but 14 pounds to be used up by 2010 including about 55 pounds for national security related programs.

"These power systems have been used for the past 30 years, and we expect that their need will continue," Waldron told The Associated Press. "Production of plutonium-238 is critical if the United States is to continue its leadership in areas of space exploration and provide for certain classified security operations. ..."

A draft environmental analysis concludes that consolidation of the program at the Idaho research lab would not cause additional health concerns from radiation releases and have minimal impact on the environment. It also would end the need to transport plutonium-238 over highways.

"The EIS clearly shows the environmental impact ... would be far less than resuming production at three sites around the country," said Waldron. Under the plan, activities that otherwise would be at the Oak Ridge facility in Tennessee and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico would be shifted to the Idaho site.

The new complex, if approved, would be expected to be finished by 2009 and cost as much as $300 million. Plans call for making 11 pounds of plutonium-238 a year over 35 years.

Some area residents in Idaho and adjacent Wyoming have raised concerns about resuming plutonium production at the Idaho National Laboratory, a vast complex that covers 570,000 acres in southeastern Idaho, about 34 miles west of Idaho Falls.

In a series of hearings last year on the plan, dozens of Idaho residents opposed the consolidation for fear it would increase cancer deaths, threaten the nearby Yellowstone ecosystem and make the region a potential terrorist target.

In fact, the government's main argument for consolidation is that the Idaho facility affords greater security.

"They refused to look at how many dead and diseased Americans would be affected by a terrorist strike at this facility," said Peter Rickards of Twin Falls, about 160 miles west of the site.

Jeremy Maxand, director of the nuclear watchdog group Snake River Alliance in Boise, said Monday, "Everybody is downwind from the Idaho National Laboratory. There is no safe place to put this stuff."

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AP reporter Christopher Smith contributed to this report from Boise.

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On the Net:

For look at EIS: www.consolidationeis.doe.gov

Idaho National Laboratory: www.inel.gov

© 2005 The Associated Press

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