We, the undersigned representatives of nongovernmental organizations around the world, call on the governments of the United States and Russia to forego the fabrication and use of plutonium (mixed oxide) fuel as a means to render surplus weapons plutonium unsuitable and unavailable for reuse in weapons, and demand that they pursue safer and more proliferation-resistant disposition methods.

We acknowledge that each country’s declaration of roughly 50 metric tons of plutonium as surplus to military needs is a positive step toward worldwide nuclear disarmament and support the goal of preventing this plutonium from being diverted, stolen, or reused in weapons.

In an attempt to achieve this goal, the US and Russian governments have agreed to a plan to convert most of this plutonium into mixed oxide (MOX) plutonium fuel for use in commercial nuclear power reactors (mainly light water reactors) in both Russia and the United States and possibly Canada or other countries. Russia also plans to use weapons MOX in plutonium breeder reactors, which are capable of producing more plutonium than they consume (though during the life of the program they will operate the reactors in such a way as not to produce more plutonium).

We oppose the MOX plan for the following reasons:

  • It would create a proliferation threat particularly while it is being transported to or stored at reactor sites, as the plutonium in fresh MOX fuel can be separated and used for weapons purposes.
  • It would establish a MOX infrastructure, thus encouraging reprocessing of plutonium-bearing spent fuel both in the US and Russia. Reprocessing generates vast amounts of high level liquid radioactive waste and increases stockpiles of separated plutonium. (Russia has specifically stated that it would reprocess and re-extract the plutonium at the end of the disposition program.)
  • It raises many unresolved technical and safety questions as weapons-grade plutonium has never been used as a fuel in commercial reactors. At minimum, it would complicate safe reactor operation and increase the consequences of a severe nuclear reactor accident.
  • It is likely to take longer and cost more to dispose of plutonium using MOX compared to the current alternative, immobilization.
  • It would not prevent plutonium from entering the environment. It would merely incorporate it into high-level radioactive waste.
  • It would breach the barrier between civil and military nuclear activities and undermine global nonproliferation efforts.

We believe that immobilization is a far better option for plutonium disposition. It involves putting plutonium into a non-weapons usable form by mixing it with other materials and making the resultant waste form proliferation resistant, that is, resistant to theft and re-extraction by non-governmental parties or nuclear-capable states.

Under current US-Russian agreements, only the US will pursue immobilization and just for a portion of its surplus plutonium not deemed suitable for MOX. At this time, Russia is not planning on pursuing this option at all, and must be pressed by the international community to reverse its position.

We believe the full amount of plutonium declared surplus by each country should be immobilized and that research and development for immobilization, along with the necessary funding, should be increased to improve and further develop this technology. In the period before immobilization technologies are available, all plutonium should be stored securely and safely and placed under international safeguards.

Further, we believe that any plutonium disposition program must ensure public access to information including, but not limited to: adequate notification of decision timelines, information on program costs, knowledge of operating records of the various actors involved, detailed data on projected environmental impacts, and reliable data on safety and health risks. The public in the communities most directly affected in both countries should have ample opportunity for meaningful input into the decision-making process, including the right to intervene legally.

In both countries there should be sound independent oversight of the program and all aspects of the program should adhere to all relevant environmental or public process laws.

Therefore, we, as concerned colleagues across the globe who embrace efforts to reduce nuclear arms and safely dispose of surplus weapons plutonium, declare International Nix MOX Action Day, September 28, 2000. We pledge to expand a united international movement that will challenge every effort to develop, encourage, or use MOX fuel as a means of plutonium disposition, will work toward the goal of having all plutonium declared surplus, and vow to continue our efforts to ensure the isolation of plutonium from the environment.

Signed,

USA

Pat Ortmeyer
Women’s Action for New Directions
Cambridge, MA USA

Kathy Crandall
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
Washington, DC, USA

Kimberly Roberts
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Washington, DC USA

Michele Boyd
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
Takoma Park, Maryland USA

Tom Clements
Nuclear Control Institute
Washington, DC USA

Kevin Kamps
Nuclear Information & Resource Service
Washington, DC USA

Wenonah Hauter
Public Citizen
Washington, DC USA

Lawrence Turk
Greenpeace USA
Washington, DC USA

Ellen Thomas
Proposition One Committee
Washington DC USA

John Loretz
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
Cambridge, MA USA

Linda Gunter
Safe Energy Communication Council
Washington, DC USA

Larry Leaman-Miller
American Friends Service Committee
Denver, CO USA

Louis Zeller
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
Glendale Springs, NC USA

Mary Olson
Nuclear Information Resource Service SE
Asheville, North Carolina USA

Harry Rogers
Carolina Peace Resource Center
Columbia, SC USA

Sara Barczak
Georgians for Clean Energy
Savannah, GA USA

Glenn Carroll
GANE
Georgians Against Nuclear Energy
Atlanta, GA USA

Terry J. Lodge, lead counsel in Hirt, et al. v. Richardson (anti-Parallex Project litigation)
Toledo, OH USA

Bob Darby, Tom Ferguson
Food Not Bombs/Atlanta
Atlanta, GA USA

Susan Bloomfield
Sierra Club Savannah River Group
Augusta, GA USA

Ed Arnold
PSR Atlanta
Atlanta, GA USA

Jen Kato
WAND Atlanta
Atlanta, GA USA

Bruce K. Gagnon
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Gainesville, FL USA

Faith Young
Energy People
Dixon Springs, TN USA

Kevin Petajan
West Allis Community Media Center
Milwaukee, WI USA

Alyson Ewald
Sacred Earth Network
Petersham, MA USA

Peg Ryglisyn, Michael Albrizio
Connecticut Opposed to Waste
Broad Brook, CT USA

Judi Friedman
PACE (People’s Action for Clean Energy)
Canton, CT USA

Nancy Burton
Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone
Mystic CT USA

Norman Cohen
Coalition for Peace and Justice
Linwood, NJ USA

Norm Cohen
the UNPLUG Salem Campaign
Linwood, NJ USA

Fred and Sue Fracke
Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power
PA, USA

Phil Kaufman
Citizens Against Hazardous and Nuclear Waste
West Hazleton, PA USA

Scott D. Portzline
Three Mile Island Alert
Harrisburg PA USA

David N. Pyles
New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
Brattleboro, VT USA

Edward Smeloff
Pace Energy Project as a signatory to the resolution.
White Plains, NY USA

Pamela Slater
STAR Foundation
(standing for truth about radiation)
Scarsdale, NY USA

Deb Katz
Citizen’s Awareness Network
Shelburne Falls, MA USA

Susan Griffin
Chenango North
South Plymouth, New York USA

Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE)
New York, NY USA

Terri Maurer-Carter
Women’s International League for Peace (WILPF)
Delaware Member-At-Large, DE USA

Bill Smirnow
Nuclear Free New York
Huntington, New York USA

Scott Cullen
Standing for Truth About Radiation (STAR)
East Hampton, NY USA

Kyle Rabin
Environmental Advocates
Albany, NY USA

Linda R. Safley
ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS CENTER
Baltimore, MD USA

Kay Cumbow
Citizens For Alternatives To Chemical Contamination
Lake Station, MI USA

Dale R. Anderson
Kalamazoo Area Coalition For Peace & Justice
Kalamazoo, MI USA

Alice Hirt
Don’t Waste Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan USA

Keith Gunter
Citizens’ Resistance at Fermi Two
Monroe, MI USA

Michael J Keegan
Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes
Monroe, MI USA

Joann Brooks
The Holland Peacemakers
Holland, Michigan USA

Kay Cumbow
Citizens for a Healthy Planet
Brown City, MI USA

Robert C. Anderson
Peace Video Project
Kalamazoo, MI USA

Dave Kraft
Nuclear Energy Information Service
Evanston, IL USA

Mark Donham, Kristi Hanson
RACE, Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists, Southern
Illinois, Kentucky , Missouri, Indiana USA

George Crocker
North American Water Office
Lake Elmo MN USA

Bruce A Drew
Prairie Island Coalition
Minneapolis MN USA

Lorraine Caputo Crouch
WILPF
Columbia, Missouri USA

Chuck Broscious
Environmental Defense Institute
Troy, Idaho USA

Buffalo Bruce
Western Nebraska Resources Council,
Chadron, Nebraska USA

B.J. Medley
ECO
Tulsa, Oklahoma USA

LeRoy Moore, Judith Mohling
Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
Boulder, CO USA

Jay Coghlan
Nuclear Watch of New Mexico.
Santa Fe, NM USA

Frank C. Subjeck
Air, Water, Earth, Org.
Lake Havasu City, Arizona USA

Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa
the Nuclear Resister
Tucson AZ USA

Owen Berio
Dawn Watch
Springdale, WA USA

Greg Wingard,
Waste Action Project
Seattle, WA USA

Lynn Sims
Don’t Waste Oregon
Portland, Oregon USA

Paige Knight
HANFORD WATCH
Portland, Oregon USA

Bernice Kring
Citizens Along the Roads and Tracks (CART)
Sacramento, CA USA

Michael Welch
Redwood Alliance & REEI
Arcata, CA USA

Mary Beth Brangan
The Nuclear Democracy Network
Bolinas, CA USA

James Heddle
The Ecological Options Network
Bolinas, CA USA

June Von Ruden
San Luis Obispo Mothers For Peace
San Luis Obispo, CA USA

Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
Livermore, CA USA

Daniel Hirsch
Committee to Bridge the Gap
Los Angeles, CA USA

Samara Dun
JustAct: Youth Action for Global Justice
San Francisco, CA USA

Jennifer Olaranna Viereck
HOME: Healing Ourselves & Mother Earth
Tecopa CA USA

Laura Hunter
San Diego Environmental Health Coalition
San Diego, CA USA

Carol Jahnkow
Peace Resource Center of San Diego
San Diego, CA USA

RUSSIA

Vladimir Mikheev
Citizen Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation,
Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Nikolai Zubov
Krasnoyarsk branch of the Socio-Ecological Union,
Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Alexey Yablokov
President of Center for Russian Environmental Policy

Vladimir Slivyak
ECODEFENSE!
Moscow, Russia

Pavel Malyshev
ECODEFENSE!
Kaliningrad, Russia

Alisa Nikoulina
Antinuclear campaign of the Socio-Ecological Union, Moscow, Russia

Galina Ragouzina
World Information Service on Energy (WISE) Russian Bureau in Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad, Russia

Alexandra Koroleva
The Environmental Education Council of
Kaliningrad regional Duma
Kaliningrad, Russia

Anatoly Korolev
Baltic Resource and Information Center
Kaliningrad, Russia

Dmitry Kaptsov
Green Arrow
Sochi, Russia

Mikhail Piskunov
Center for Assistance to Citizen Initiatives Dimitrovgrad, Russia

Tatyana Razzhavina
Information-Juridical Center
Dimitrovgrad, Russia

Tamara Dobretsova
In the Name of Life
Kostroma, Russia

Alexey Kozlov
Anti-nuclear Resistance
Voronezh, Russia

Vitaly Kudrin
ECODEFENSE!
Voronezh, Russia

Anna Shvedova
Stop Corporation!
Voronezh, Russia

Konstantin Hramenkov
Green Arrow
Voronezh, Russia

Alexey Leschev
Environment program of the Center for Citizen Initiatives Development
Voronezh, Russia

Olga Razbash
Environmental and Human Rights
Moscow, Russia

Ashat Kayumov
Socio-Ecological Union/Dront
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Sergey Paschenko
Siberian Scientists for Global Responsibility
Novosibirsk, Russia

Ekaterina Ahmadeeva
Ecofront
Chelyabinsk, Russia

CANADA

Irene Kock, David H. Martin
Nuclear Awareness Project
Uxbridge, Ontario Canada

Kristen Ostling
Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout
Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Norman Rubin
Energy Probe
Toronto, Ontario Canada

Ross Clark
Ontario Greens

Theresa McClenaghan
Canadian Environmental Law Association
Toronto, Ontario Canada

Dr. Rosalie Bertell,
International Institute of Concern for Public Health
West Toronto Ontario Canada

Anne Adelson
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Toronto, Ontario Canada

Brian Bedford
OPIRG-Guelph
Ontario Public Interest Research Group Guelph, Ontario Canada

Chris Michener
Pembroke Area Field Naturalists
Golden Lake, Ontario Canada

Ole Hendrickson
Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area
Pembroke, Ontario Canada

Citizens’ Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario
Windsor, Ontario Canada

Mike Buckthought
OPIRG-Carleton
Ontario Canada

Walter Robbins
Campaign STOP
(Stop Trafficking of Plutonium)
Kingston, Ontario Canada

Clearinghouse Group
Glassville, NB, Canada

Bill Adamson
Inter-Church Uranium Committee,
Saskatoon, Sask. Canada

Anne Williams
Lethbridge Network for Peace
Lethbridge, Alberta Canada

Jeanette Liberty-Duns
Project Ploughshares Saskatoon
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Shannon Croutch,
Saskatchewan Environmental Society (SES)
Saskatoon, SK Canada

Patrick Rasmussen
Mouvement Vert Mauricie
St. Matthieu du Parc QuÊbec Canada
Dr. Gordon Edwards
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
Montreal QC Canada

Jacques Boucher
Disarmament and Peace Concerns
Centre de ressources sur la non-violence
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Enviro-Clare, Nova Scotia, Canada

Concerned Citizens of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

Liz Armstrong
Breast Cancer Prevention Coalition
Erin ON Canada

Peter Tabuns
Greenpeace Canada
Toronto, Ontario

MEXICO

Luis Gutierrez-Esparza
Latin American Circle for International Studies
Mexico City Mexico

EUROPE

Olov Wikstrom
The Waste Net,
Skelleftea, Sweden

Ingrid Bildstrom
Avfallskedjan
Fransta, Sweden

Jorma Kahanpaa
Swedish Anti Nuclear Movement
Marc FAIVET
collectif STOP MêLOX et MOX

Solange Fernex
WILPF France
Paris, France

Philippe BROUSSE
Rouseau “Sortir du nuclaire”
(Network of more than 500 groups and associations)
LYON – FRANCE

Bruna Nota
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Geneva, Switzerland
Dr. Arthur Muhl
President, Swiss affiliate of IPPNW

Claus Biegert
Nuclear-Free Future Award
Munich, Germany

Claudia Baitinger
In der Furge
DORSTEN – Germany

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, WILPF,
German section (Internationale Frauenliga für Frieden und Freiheit)
München Germany

Bernd Bennecke
Basis-Gruen
Luebeck, Germany

Bernd Frieboese
BARSEBÄCKSOFFENSIV
Berlin, Germany

Ludger Klein-Ridder
Umwelt-AG der Anne-Frank-Gesamtschule in Gütersloh
Gütersloh, Deutschland

Birgitta Möller
Miljöpartiet de Gröna
i Helsingborg
Dachverband der Oberpfälzer Bürgerinitiativen gegen Atomanlagen e.V.
Schwandorf

Margaaret Turner
UK Section of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Antonina Galkina
Spilni Dii
Nikolaev, Ukraine

Hakob Sanasaryan
President of Greens’ Union of Armenia Yerevan, Republic of Armenia

Alexandr Ivanchik
Dolgozhitel
Chernigov, Ukraine

Viktoria Tkach
Int’l Black Sea Network
Nikolaev, Ukraine

Tatyana Elunina
Step to Understanding
Odessa, Ukraine

Alexandra Tolstyh
Zeleny Svit
Nikolaev, Ukraine

Ivan Sitnikov
Invalids of Chernobyl
Nikolaev, Ukraine

Sergey Shapovalov
Institute of Ecology
Nikolaev, Ukraine

Oleg Derkach
National Environmental Center of Ukraine
Nikolaev, Ukraine

Alexandr Kashtalyan
Center for Wildlife Protection
Minsk, Belorussia

Thomas Nilsen
The Bellona Foundation
Norway

JAPAN

Yumi Kikuchi
Monkey Bay Wildlife Fund
Japan

Hideyuki Ban
Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center
Tokyo, JAPAN

Satomi Oba
Director of Plutoium Action Hiroshima
Hiroshima City, Japan

AUSTRALIA

Irene Gale AM
Australian Peace Committee (SA Branch)Inc.
Adelaide SA Australia
Jo Valentine
People for Nuclear Disarmament
Perth, Western Australia

Jo Valentine
Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia