Snake River Alliance > News

Current Articles | Categories | Search | Syndication

Friday, March 07, 2008

Say NO to Uranium Enrichment Plant
By @ 11:34 AM :: 267 Views :: Nuclear Power, Nuclear Waste and Contamination, Action Alert

Uranium Enrichment—A Radioactive Proposal

Areva, a giant nuclear corporation controlled by the French government, first saw how compliant Idaho’s state and local governments can be when it came here to push the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. Now it’s come back to eastern Idaho to look for a building site—and financial incentives—for a uranium enrichment plant.

The “Incentives” Proposal

The Idaho State Legislature is considering two bills to give millions of dollars in tax breaks to Areva, which says its proposed factory would cost $2 billion but will only employ 250 people. One bill would cap Areva’s property assessment in Bonneville County at $400 million, less than a quarter of its true cost. The other bill would exempt Areva’s equipment purchases from the state sales tax. This exemption might not be as weighty as it appears, since Areva may well import most of its pricier equipment. Both bills sailed through the House Revenue and Taxation Committee and were quickly approved by the full House earlier this week. The Senate is poised to seal the deal as soon as the week of March 10.
Areva recently hired a full-time, well-connected lobbyist in Boise and is pushing hard for the tax gimmes. It’s making its proposal—and looking for a dowry—in Idaho, Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, and New Mexico. (New Mexico is probably tapped out, since Lea County, NM, has already been lured into backing a uranium enrichment plant—half owned by Areva—to the tune of $1.7 billion.) Areva’s staff will recommend a US site to its board of directors in Paris at the end of March.

The “Enrichment” Process

Tracking uranium from a mine to a reactor is a study in nuclear power’s complexity—and pitfalls. First uranium is mined, then it’s milled, then it’s converted, then it’s enriched, then it’s converted again, and then, finally, it’s fabricated into nuclear reactor fuel.
Most steps involve transportation. Every step costs money, produces nuclear waste, and threatens workers, other people, and land, water, and air.
Uranium ore contains several different forms, or isotopes, of uranium. All of the uranium is first concentrated out of the ore. It’s then mixed with fluorine to make uranium hexafluoride, UF-6. Gaseous UF-6 is spun in centrifuges, and the heavier isotopes are spun off with centrifugal force, leaving behind the lightweight U-235, which is used in both nuclear reactor fuel and nuclear bombs. How often the gas is spun determines how pure, or “enriched,” the uranium U-235 becomes. The uranium to make nuclear bomb material is much more enriched than uranium for reactor fuel.
What is spun off is depleted uranium hexafluoride, DUF-6, the primary waste stream of uranium enrichment.

Some Real Problems

No Need: Uranium enrichment capacity has exceeded demand for many years, and the supply-demand balance will not change any time soon.
But the bulk of uranium enrichment occurs overseas, and one of Areva’s selling points is that its enrichment plant would ensure US “energy security.” Not even Congress buys that argument.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 cut proposed federal subsidies for uranium enrichment even as it shifted billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize nuclear reactor construction. And speaking of US energy security: 1) Areva is not a US corporation. 2) The sole US enrichment firm doesn’t operate its plant at full capacity and exports most of its product to Asia.

Nuclear waste: About 90% of what comes out of a uranium enrichment plant is depleted uranium hexafluoride waste. DUF-6 is radioactive and chemically toxic. When it is exposed to moisture, even damp air, it releases highly corrosive gas in a fairly violent chemical reaction. The gas damages kidneys and lungs and can kill people who inhale it.
There is no place to dispose of DUF-6 in the United States.
The Department of Energy already stores more than 57,600 stainless steel cylinders of solid DUF-6, about three-quarters from nuclear power and the rest from bomb production. Each cylinder weighs 10 to 14 tons and emits low levels of radiation. Maintenance of the cylinders gets harder over time, and some of the older cylinders have already corroded and leaked.
Two deconversion facilities (Yes. Another step!) are under construction in the US to change DUF-6 into a less dangerous form that might be suitable for disposal and would certainly be safer to store. Though both are substantially over-budget and behind schedule, there’s no reason to think they will not come on-line eventually. However, the current backlog of DUF-6 will occupy the deconversion plants for decades, so cylinders would be stored on concrete pads in Idaho for decades, too, since Areva does not plan to build its own deconversion facility.

Nuclear Bombs: Highly enriched uranium is used in nuclear bombs, and enrichment plants are invitations to proliferation. In the run-up to the Iraq War, the Bush Administration repeatedly, though erroneously, pointed to some aluminum tubes similar to enrichment centrifuges as evidence of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Last fall, President Bush suggested Iran’s uranium enrichment program might spark World War III.

Here’s How to Say No!

Call or write your State Senators today by finding their contact info at www.legislature.idaho.gov, then write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, and talk with your friends.

• The State should not give breaks to a single nonrenewable energy company. Idaho isn’t giving similar support to renewable energy companies as is called for in its own State Energy Plan.
• Tax breaks to Areva are not fair. Areva wants a $400 million property tax cap in exchange for 250 jobs. The State capped Micron’s property tax twice as high ($800 million) even though it had 9,000 jobs, 1,000 fewer than before it got its tax break. Furthermore, the sales tax exemption Areva wants is to help companies producing retail goods. Nuclear fuel is not sold in the retail market.
• There is no “clawback” clause or sunset provision. A clawback clause would ensure that the state could recover any benefits the company receives if it doesn’t perform. Any tax exemptions should also “sunset” in five years, as do those for renewable energy companies.
• Uranium enrichment is a poor investment of taxpayer money and Idaho resources. Areva’s 2006 sales totaled $14 billion. We’re already shortchanging public employees and infrastructure repair.

Join Today!