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Idaho Supports Plutonium 238 Production Plan
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The state is supporting an Energy Department proposal to start producing plutonium-238 for NASA and national security agencies at a federal nuclear research compound in eastern Idaho.

But in comments submitted Monday to the government, the state called on the Bush administration to spell out a plan to transfer the highly radioactive waste created at the Idaho National Laboratory to disposal sites out of state. The state also wants the Energy Department to allow independent monitoring of air emissions and workplace safety at the proposed $300 million production facility.

With those caveats, the administration of Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said it will endorse the government's plan to consolidate U.S. production of plutonium-238 ``space batteries'' at the 890-square-mile complex outside of Idaho Falls. ``It's a concept we can support, but there are some details that still need to be worked out and DOE needs to improve some of its evaluation and communication,'' said Kathleen Trever, Kempthorne's coordinator for oversight of the lab.
Note to Nevada about the Yucca Mt. waste facility: this is how it's done.
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. The Bush administration wants to use an existing reactor at the lab to make 11 pounds of plutonium-238 annually for 35 years, beginning in 2010.
Posted by: Steve White 2005-08-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=128083