EDITORIAL: MOX defunding bill a mistake

The role of the nuclear industry in the nation's race for energy security had a win and what could be a setback in Washington, D.C., this week. Even as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the construction of a new nuclear plant, a bill under consideration by the House of Representatives would gut funding for the Mixed Oxide fuel program at the Savannah River Site.

In the first development, the first new nuclear power plant in a generation won approval Thursday as federal regulators voted to grant a license for two new reactors at Plant Vogtle in Burke County, Ga. Atlanta-based Southern Co. hopes to begin operating the $14 billion reactors at the site south of Augusta as soon as 2016. The NRC last approved construction of a nuclear plant in 1978, a year before a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. After that accident, fears of a radiation release were heightened and new reactor orders were brought nearly to a halt. The latest approval comes in the wake of an earthquake and Tsunami disaster in Japan that sparked a disaster at the Fukushima Dai-chi plant there. The planned reactors, along with two others in South Carolina expected to win approval in coming months, are the remnants of a once-anticipated building boom that the power industry dubbed the "nuclear renaissance."

Despite the fears raised by the recent disaster in the Pacific, the NRC has decided it is time to proceed with new plant construction. Among the major mandates for these new efforts will and should be including new technology designed to avoid the causes of past problems in the United States and around the world.

While that effort moved forward, a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week calls for the termination of the $4.8 billion MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility project at the Savannah River Site.

Introduced by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., the bill - Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act 2012 - aims to reduce the number of the Navy's nuclear-armed submarines, reduce the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and ban the development of a new-long range penetrating bomber aircraft.

The bill proposes that "none of the funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2013 or any fiscal year thereafter for the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy may be obligated or expended for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project."

The National Nuclear Security Administration's MOX facility, intended to become operational in 2016, would turn surplus weapons-grade plutonium into reactor fuel to be used in commercial nuclear power plants.

Thankfully, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said Thursday that he does not believe the bill stands much chance."MOX is a national asset," he said. "I am opposed to Rep. Markey's legislation to strip funding for MOX, and I do not believe the bill will ever move past the committee level. I stand committed to ensuring MOX construction continues on schedule so that America can carry out its international nuclear nonproliferation obligations while simultaneously producing fuel which supplies power to millions of Americans."

Beyond being a national asset, the MOX program is also the result of an agreement between the U.S. and Russian governments and is intended to eliminate stockpiles of weapons-grade material. In essence, it is a program to pound swords into plowshares and create energy to boot. The question for those who support the end of funding remains. What do we do with the stockpiled material?

Let's hope this latest effort to derail MOX is dealt with quickly and the progress seen in the NRC's Vogtle decision becomes the norm, allowing us to move forward with safe and effective uses of commercial nuclear energy.