[cdn-nucl-l] " MOX program not dead yet "

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@aecl.ca>]

From this week's issue of The North Renfrew Times (Deep River, Ontario)....
( Thanks Jeremy ! )

Jaro
frantaj@aecl.ca

http://www.magma.ca/~drcanrt/feedback.htm
Letter of the week:
MOX program not dead yet
With apologies to Mark Twain, the rumours of the MOX test's demise have been
greatly exaggerated. Your article "MOX tests dead before they start?"
(December 13) erroneously reports that "a panel of American scientists has
ruled out the use of MOX fuel in CANDU reactors". 
The report in question, a pre-publication version of which can be viewed
on-line at <www.nap.edu/catalog/9999.html>, finds instead that the most
recent CANDU-MOX option submitted by AECL is "marginally compliant" with the
so-called Spent-Fuel Standard. 

The report does find an earlier CANDU-MOX option to be non-compliant, which
may be the source of confusion. 

Moreover, my personal review of this report suggests that several
questionable assumptions were made by the American panel (such as the
concentration of plutonium in the final spent fuel), which if corrected
could raise the CANDU-MOX compliance level well above "marginal". 

The report is flawed and of little technical value. 

Certainly I'd counsel against assigning much weight to the comments of Tom
Clements of the Nuclear Control Institute, a well-heeled American
anti-nuclear group with other things on their mind. 

Jeremy Whitlock 

(December 19, 2000)