WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- The House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee cut all funds for a nuclear reactor being built in South Carolina, contradicting defense authorizers.
The cut was an apparent reaction to news that Russia is balking on its end of the deal to build a sister reactor that also burned plutonium-based mixed-oxide fuel. In March a U.S. official told Congress the Russian government now wants to use the plutonium to fuel a Russian-built fast-breeder reactor.
The House Armed Services Committee cut $150 million from the request and fenced some funds, but included report language in the FY-07 defense authorization bill delinking the South Carolina plant from its Russian sister.
Nearly $1 billion has already been invested in the South Carolina site, which is meant to burn 34 metric tons of plutonium, providing both energy and keeping the material out of the hands of terrorists.
"The Russians are no longer committed to the program as" agreed in 2000, said Jerald S. Paul, the principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration at the Energy Department during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "They are still committed to the destruction of 34 metric tons of plutonium but their preference is for a fast (breeder) reactor unless the international community provides all the money to do it."
The United States and Russia agreed in the year 2000 to each burn 34 metric tons of plutonium in a nuclear reactor, thus providing both energy and keeping the material out of the hands of terrorists.
South Carolina's Savannah River Site already holds at least 4 tons of plutonium.
Rep. Jack Spratt, D-S.C., has called for a hearing on the future of the South Carolina MOX reactor.
