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Arash

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Jan 28, 2006, 5:34:12 PM1/28/06

AntiWar
January 28, 2006

To MOX or not to MOX

Dr. James Gordon Prather
Nuclear weapons physicist
Nuclear bomb tester at Lawrence Livermore
Technical director of nuclear bomb testings at Sandia
Chief scientist of the U.S. Army
U.S. Navy veteran

After four years of intense debate, President Bush has apparently decided to override
President Carter and Greenpeace and "close the fuel cycle".

President Carter had essentially prohibited the "recycling" of "spent" nuclear fuel
in 1977, and required all U.S. electric utilities operating nuclear power plants to
charge their customers a monthly fee that was to be handed over to the federal
government so the government could dig a really deep grave somewhere out west (in a
state with only one or two electoral votes). [See: Presidential Directive NSC-8,
dated 24 March 1977 http://jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/pd08.pdf ]

Once a deep enough grave had been dug, the owners and operators of the nuclear power
plants had to bury all their "spent" fuel elements – which, from the viewpoint of
generating electricity, were still worth nearly as much when "spent" as they had been
when they were brand new – and pay the federal government to stand guard over the
grave for the next 10,000 years.

There are several rationales for President Bush to reverse this President Carter
nuclear power "no-recycling" decision:

Global warming:
---------------------
One rationale is that there may turn out – after all – to be something to this
global-warming brouhaha. And if it is somehow connected to the production of carbon
dioxide, perhaps we ought to shut down our coal-fired, oil-fired and gas-fired
electricity generating plants and build thousands of nuclear power plants to replace
them.

Since we desperately need the electricity, and since nuclear power plants don't make
"greenhouse" gases, we can no longer afford to treat fuel elements that are far from
"spent" as liabilities rather than as assets.

Stifling Yucca Mountain:
--------------------------------
A second rationale is that if "spent" fuel is recycled, the highly radioactive "dirty
daughters" – with "short half-lives" – can be chemically separated from the weakly
radioactive – long half-lived – "unburned" fuel. Only the short-lived "dirty
daughters" would need to be shipped to Yucca Mountain, and the feds would only have
to stand guard over a given shipment for decades, as opposed to 10,000 years for
un-separated "spent" fuel.

Loose nukes:
-----------------
A third rationale is that the Russians are getting rid of their excess
weapons-useable plutonium – enough to make about 30,000 nukes – by making
plutonium-uranium Mixed-Oxide (MOX) fuel and generating electricity with all those
excess nukes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOX_fuel

The rest of the world was not affected by Jimmy Carter's decree not to recycle spent
fuel, so there is already an established – but barely cost effective since there is
not yet a shortage of cheap uranium – MOX fuel infrastructure, wherein "spent" fuel
elements of other nations have been converted into MOX and used to generate
electricity in Europe, Russia, Japan and elsewhere.

The effect of the Russians getting rid of all their "loose nukes" as MOX – which we
have pledged to help them do, financially and technically – will be to vastly
increase the size – and cost-effectiveness – of this international MOX fuel
infrastructure.

Five years ago, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Senator Pete Domenici called for the
secretary of energy to develop a "National Spent Nuclear Fuel Strategy". [See:
Nuclear Energy Electricity Supply Assurance Act of 2001 - S.472
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c107:./temp/~c107c4kbu5 ]

Senator Pete Domenici said that Congress urgently needed that strategy to determine
"whether the spent fuel should be treated as waste, subject to permanent burial" (a
la Jimmy Carter), or whether it "should be considered to be an energy resource that
is needed to meet future energy requirements".

Five years later, it appears that strategy has been developed.

But, if the Bush-Cheney administration decides to essentially establish a barely
cost-effective U.S. MOX program in competition with the Russians, the motive may be
essentially un-related to addressing the global warming or Yucca Mountain hysteria.
http://www.rense.com/general69/doe.htm

It may be that Bush-Cheney have realized that a solution to the current Iranian
uranium-enrichment "crisis" would be for the Russian nuclear power plants at Bushehr
to be fueled from the get-go with MOX fuel.

Because of radiation safety concerns at the facilities, the MOX fuel cycle is
essentially run as a "just-in-time" operation. The time interval between the
un-burned plutonium and uranium still being in a highly radioactive spent-fuel
element in storage and its being loaded – as weakly radioactive MOX – into another
reactor needs to be held to a few months. That is, spent fuel is not "recycled" until
it is actually needed to make MOX fuel for a date-specific refueling of a specific
reactor.

Hence, with Russian MOX fueled reactors, the need or even desirability of Iran having
a uranium-enrichment capability would be obviated.

Bummer!

So much for the gravest threat we have faced since the end of the Cold War.

* Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for
national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy
Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the
Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as
legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Senator Henry Bellmon,
R-Okla. --ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a
nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
(http://www.llnl.gov) in California and Sandia National Laboratory
(http://www.sandia.gov) in New Mexico. http://www.antiwar.com/prather

West has kept billions of Iran's EURODIF investments for 30 years In 1975, Iran took
a very costly 10% financial participation in EURODIF uranium enrichment plant being
built in France. Iran paid $1 billion towards the purchase of a 10% share of
ownership in EURODIF and agreed to buy a quota from the new plant. But after the
Iranian revolution in 1979, neither was Iran given any enriched uranium nor did it
get back its investment from EURODIF. The U.S. was also paid to deliver new fuel and
upgrade its power in accordance with a contract signed before the revolution. U.S.
gave neither the fuel nor the billions of dollars it had received for it. Germany was
paid for in full, billions of dollars for the two nuclear facilities in Busher, but
after three decades, Germany has refused to export any equipments or refund the
money.
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0540800f7314f7b0

IAEA and Iran
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Focus/IaeaIran/index.shtml

Setting the Record Straight about Iran's Nuclear Program
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/a19f89b941a33707

Currency War
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1052ca7782c2caba

What "noncompliance"? And defying whom?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/93043e2f0b11527b

'Disarming' Tehran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0863698fee1502c2

More neo-crazy media sycophant lies about Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/b16081acddbb8739

CIA-IAEA planting evidence!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/921c386f2446cb6e

Iranian nuke warheads
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/9d475a1b45c388d5

AIPAC statement on the U.S. administration's policy on Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0c5663f63d76e5c0

IAEA is doing Israel's bidding
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/953912efce75cbd9

Stuff and Nonsense
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/009482f7d2fcd131

Without Discrimination
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e2a592e4c4c6fcf8

Nuclear terrorism
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7254647c13390f5a

Happy New Year, EU/E3
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1ed90b8d2c1efd2d

Why shouldn't Iran seek nuclear weapons? - It's the U.S. which is violating the
"Article VI" of the NPT
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7d7b7340575738dd

Islamic back-scratching
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1f44f9a9ab778418

Those Crazy Mullahs
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7a8e501fa56ff9d3

Neo-Crazies Already Planning Beyond Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/470563f4bdf3cb36

Authoritative mis-information on Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/66bbad26c0f03d49

"Stolen Iranian Laptop", GLADIO's new campaign of misinformation
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f552c361c6d02dfc

Referring Nuke-Threats to Security Council
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/edd8971f345bb857

New York Times, Nuclear Weapons and Iran:
Stupidity, Laziness or Déjà vu All Over Again?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f2718b3d938eaed2

Iran's transparency
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/b385feaa1916d4d2

'Ahmadinejad's bombmaker' – where are you?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/78343ab2a9b9a3e8

Whoops! There she goes again
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/6f573bd90d5e1ee1

Lump of Coal for Condi
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/d098e8d0fd41745a

Fixing and forging intelligence
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/4c6663c968fd5f6c

Clumsy forgeries, Italian style
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/75bf490e791b0806

Stifling neo-crazy media sycophants
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/8790e709a9a122b4

After 2 years of intrusive go-anywhere see-anything ask-anybody inspections!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/a545047699722ca7

Nobel's peaceful kick to the groin
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/22f9662d106ce9c4

Bolton the Peacemaker
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/de17232f52db3933

Saving Face
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7da8706c13c8a059

West does not seek the elimination of nukes, but rather the establishment of nuclear
monopoly
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/502efbdfaa7622f7

Unratified additional protocol
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1b2b77819b38d9e3

The high price of hounding Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7c854d944d6e061d

Such a Blot
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/43ee2e2149e17310

Weapons of Mass Murder
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0f3f87b645a72fde

Neocrazies Foiled
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/86df9c0e9c38d475

Iran knocks Europe out
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/497a81cb3c315c65

UN opens a Pandora's Box of "Iran exceptionalism"
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/24bfe5a318d9a222

There is Nothing to refer to UN Security Council
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/76824d9387903d4a

WMD Postmortem
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0d02537756cafca8

No wonder the West is so mad at Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/83e63797f1a1af3b

Bolton in a China Shop
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/9927bb4f65924e34

JEW media sycophants & 36% HEU - IRAN told the truth, yet JEW keeps lying
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f90a6eef507f10a0

Past Arguments Don't Square With Current Iran Policy
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f53d3a05bc5403c1

The fuel behind Iran's nuclear drive
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2fcf81313deb4ae0

The U.S. and Iran: Democracy, Terrorism, and Nuclear Weapons
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0d0dcf76abbaafb1

NO Nuclear double standards
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/8e41f4a8a1a3e04c

Backlash Builds Against Cheney's 'Guns of August'
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/8286b2b389247d0a

An offer Iran MUST refuse
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/743b96400831f8a1

Zero Tolerance
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1641ae424fde5b89

Sino-Russian Guarantees?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bd8f5389ab0e8956

More neo-crazy media sycophant LIES about Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/d3fe84a9b64d20bc

What The Neo-Crazies Knew
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/6b45fabf57726a03

EU vs. Iran - Who's Right?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/cbce70a3093360fb

Iran should refer U.S. to Security Council for violating UNSCR-984
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0d54ef8e41b971bf

Castration of NPT - U.S. instantly tore up NPT for India, so why should Iran obey a
torn up agreement!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2c234f4a148cd298

U.S. ripped NPT into pieces; Iran must withdraw from this annulled treaty
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/fbf55e939908b2c2

U.S. proliferation rhetoric and reality
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7d8c268ee51c07be

Ambassador Bolton's Agenda
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1ca916601b7a7bc8

Iran's INALIENABLE RIGHT to uranium enrichment
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/245f6081b4e3d019

A Palliative for Neo-Crazy Lies
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1b7968f98173938d

Inalienable right without discrimination
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/5012a673328fa044

U.S. doesn't want to disarm even though it promised to do so
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c0b86cad11cb9413

UN Referral – Not
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bddc928154c8c96a

What Iranian obligations? What breaches? America's lies, lies, lies...
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/9535c4a90df98471

Memo to slimy senators
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7065ffd57b51a959

U.S. promised in 2000, to get rid of it's nukes!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1e23bafecdac9e82

U.S. has violated Iran's NPT rights!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/02f1f48fafcac2b6

Iran's diplomatic masterpiece
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f532352654efee1d

Bush to sabotage NPT
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/6386adef83860d3e

West's repeated violations of "Article IV & I" against Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0123ceb12dd47321

Israel guns for Iran - Why?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2c0274540f3957b7

U.S. wants definition of NPT 'noncompliance' changed!!!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2abab5a7b8bce4c5

NTP for dummies
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f317bb918ca244da

CNN's Wolf Blitzer & David Albright: Jews global campaign against Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/44fcd2a53218eb52

The Real Threat From John Bolton
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/16fb61c3cca32703

81-mm smoking rockets
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/fb2c580ba00d79a6

U.S. plans to destroy NPT
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/760abaff1d8ac7c2

Nuts to Bush
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/de936f823b4dfb11

Iran's logic proven correct to the entire World
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/a5798de678dad2a9

Sandbagging the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group)
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/238000abe8fe032e

What Noncompliance?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/32f537772749ecc2

Sandbagging the EU
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bb437d1ee00ad1e9

Bye-Bye, NPT
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/eb8e9f617d0e0867

Jew tells Bush to lie about Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c96849f55f92353e

Targeting Non-existent Nukes?
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e25e86754767e3ef

Blindly Backing Israel Against Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/ca49370dcc1f41a4

Condi Desperate to Stop EU-China-Iran Chain Reaction
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/26e6a24b43339654

The Impossible Dream in the State of the Union Address
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/74938ea7958d0764

Targeting Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/dbb46af7ff3f0b66

Bay of Pigs part 2, CIA-Israeli-MEK
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/b58f2a1d8b2290ff

Threatening Iran - despite the evidence
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/ce6e09919da68cbb

Virtual Nukes
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c245e595ad17ae57

Iran's having the capability to enrich uranium is not even tantamount to having the
capability to produce the essentially pure uranium-235 required to make a nuke
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/303c3ca53b67c0a7

Dangerous Delusions About Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/42c57f2ae0cdb3b0

Thwarting the Neo-Crazies
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/66c79d721fd588d4

Trashing the IAEA Again
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f8c610f6cc9e1fda

U.S. keeps lying about Iran again & again
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e9f480b192bd425e

Iran's Stealthy Nukes
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e47cc87d2b268368

Uranium-Enrichment Myths Busted
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f7ebc6f4bed9d13a

Iran Plays by the Rules - No Fair!
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/25be300601cc8984

Nuclear Bait and Switch
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0a0dc80ca3b8e98f

The myth of Iranian nukes
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bf78503a661673e9

North Korea has what Iraq didn't
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/56f613221080276e

Iran has absolute right to enrich uranium
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0a8ac2dc599976ba

Iran is in full compliance with NPT & IAEA
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/737b74e86ba897cb