Alliance for Nuclear Accountability * Arizona Safe Energy Coalition

Center for Energy Research * Citizen Alert * Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana Citizens Awareness Network * Citizens’ Resistance at Fermi Two

Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes * Committee to Bridge the Gap

Don’t Waste Michigan * Don’t Waste Oregon * Environmental Defense Institute Federation of American Scientists * Friends of the Earth * GE Stockholders’ Alliance Global Resource Action Center for the Environment * Hanford Watch

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research * Natural Resources Defense Council

North American Water Office * Nuclear Control Institute

Nuclear Energy Information Service * Nuclear Information and Resource Service Nuclear Watch of New Mexico * Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance

Physicians for Social Responsibility * Prairie Island Coalition * Public Citizen

Safe Energy Communication Council * Sierra Club Savannah River Group

Snake River Alliance * Southwest Information and Research Center

Taxpayers for Common Sense * Tri-Valley CAREs * 20/20 Vision Georgia

U.S. Public Interest Research Group * Yggdrasil Institute

August 7, 2000

The Honorable Bill Richardson

Department of Energy

Washington, DC 20585

Dear Secretary Richardson:

As stakeholders who worked with the Clinton Administration to terminate the Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor Program, we are writing to express our deepest concerns that this great victory for taxpayers, the environment and national security will not be carried out. In 1994, Congress mandated the immediate termination of activities associated with the Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor Program (ALMR) and the closure of the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR II) in Idaho. Six years and $444 million later, EBR II still has not been permanently shut down. We call upon you to take steps to ensure the closure takes place without further delays and is completed within the year.

When the Administration agreed to terminate the ALMR Program, we were assured by the Office of Nuclear Energy that the reactor would be closed in 1998. Despite full Congressional appropriations for “termination activities” for six years amounting to $444 million, the closure date has been moved three times. The current estimated closure date is March 2002. These delays are unacceptable. These delays and the fact that DOE has been spending the bulk of “termination” funds for activities designed to prolong the program rather than close the reactor lead us to question your department’s commitment to ending this program.

In June, the Inspector General for the Department of Energy completed an audit of the EBR II closure. The Inspector General found:

Only $55 million of the $444 million allocated actually went to shutting down EBR II. That means only one-eighth of taxpayer money allocated actually went towards closing the obsolete EBR II.

There was little oversight of the project. The Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE) did not monitor the project nor was any reporting required. The money spent on the project was not tracked as to what activity it supported, and no updates on the progress of the closure were required.

The small amount of shut-down activities that have occurred have been mismanaged and increased costs by at least $1.5 million.

In addition, the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (NE) has been dragging its feet in efforts to shut down EBR-II. The Inspector General reported that it took three years for NE to approve Argonne-West’s implementation plan for closure. According to the Inspector General, NE also mismanaged funds and provided little oversight of the project. Further, NE did not provide the project with written approvals of directions to implement the shut-down plan. Even though NE had annual meetings with the administrators of the project and frequent verbal communications, no formal review documents, inspections, monitoring or other compliance procedures were completed.

Given the taxpayer, proliferation and environmental concerns associated with the ALMR program, Congress made a wise decision to terminate the program and shut down the EBR-II reactor. EBR-II, a sodium-cooled plutonium breeder reactor, presented an environmental threat due to the potential of explosion or serious accidents due to sodium leaks. It also undercut U.S. non-proliferation policy by depending upon a fuel cycle that requires the reprocessing of spent fuel and recycle of plutonium. It is U.S. policy not to undertake or encourage reprocessing because it increases the danger of diversion of plutonium to weapons use. As the U.S. has wisely rejected breeder reactors and associated reprocessing of spent fuel, DOE must now insure that both Congressional directive and U.S. non-proliferation policy are followed and that this reactor be fully shut down.

In 1994, Congress agreed with the Clinton Administration’s economic and proliferation concerns inherent in the EBR-II project, and mandated that its shutdown be completed “as soon as possible.” The Inspector General for DOE calls for an end to the delays in closing the reactor. You need to take steps to ensure the closure proceeds and is complete without further delays. We urge that drainage of the primary sodium loop begin this year and that a timetable for safe and complete shutdown be presented soon.

Thank you for taking into consideration our concerns about problems with the EBR-II shut-down. We would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you at your earliest convenience in order to hear from you what you are doing to fully implement the recommendations of your Inspector General. To make arrangements, please contact Anna Aurilio, 202-546-9707; Beatrice Brailsford, 208-234-4782; Tom Clements,

202-822-8444; or Frank von Hippel, 609-275-7004.

Sincerely,

Kathy Crandall

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

Betty Schroeder

Arizona Safe Energy Coalition

Chuck Johnson

Center for Energy Research

Kaitlin Backlund

Citizen Alert

Roger Voelker

Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana

Deb Katz

Citizens Awareness Network

Keith Gunter

Citizens’ Resistance at Fermi Two

Michael J. Keegan

Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes

Bill Magavern

Committee to Bridge the Gap

Corrine Carey

Don’t Waste Michigan

Lynn Sims

Don’t Waste Oregon

Chuck Broscious

Environmental Defense Institute

Henry Kelly

Federation of American Scientists

Gawain Kripke

Friends of the Earth

GE Stockholders’ Alliance

Patricia Birnie

Alice Slater

Global Resource Action Center for the Environment

Paige S. Knight

Hanford Watch

Arjun Makhijani

Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

David Adelman

Natural Resources Defense Council

George Crocker

North American Water Office

Tom Clements

Nuclear Control Institute

Dave Kraft

Nuclear Energy Information Service

Michael Mariotte

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Jay Coghlan

Nuclear Watch of New Mexico

Ralph Hutchison

Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance

Martin Butcher

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Bruce A. Drew

Prairie Island Coalition

Frank von Hippel

Professor of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

Wenonah Hauter

Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program

Public Citizen

Linda Gunter

Safe Energy Communication Council

Beatrice Brailsford

Snake River Alliance

Susan Bloomfield

Sierra Club Savannah River Group

Don Hancock

Southwest Research and Information Center

Jill Lancelot

Taxpayers for Common Sense

Marylia Kelley

Tri-Valley CAREs

Joan O. King

20/20 Vision Georgia

Anna Aurilio

U.S. Public Interest Research Group

Mary Byrd Davis

Yggdrasil Institute