Nuclear processingContinued funding for S.C. mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) plant – at least until fall
Federal legislators have secured the funds to keep the mixed-oxide fuelplant (MOX) at the Savannah River Sitein South Carolina moving forward at least into fall, according to South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and members of the state’s congressional delegation. The 310-square mile site once produced components for nuclear weapons, but since the agreement with Russia to turn nuclear weapons into reactor fuel, the site has focused on repurposing and cleanup.
Federal legislators have secured the funds to keep the mixed-oxide fuel plant (MOX) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina moving forward at least into fall, according to South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and members of the state’s congressional delegation. The 310-square mile site once produced components for nuclear weapons, but since the agreement with Russia to turn nuclear weapons into reactor fuel, the site has focused on repurposing and cleanup.
The project is billions of dollars over budget and long past due. The Obama administration has recommended placing the project on hold until a more cost-effective approach can be adopted, but South Carolina sued, claiming funds allocated to build MOX could not be used to shut the plant down, and that the administration has committed to maintain construction efforts until the fiscal year ends this fall.
According to theState, Senator Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) said on Monday that congressional budgets have the money to continue the MOX project, at least into the next fiscal year. “It won’t go to cold standby as far as we can tell,” Scott said, claiming the House will approve funds to keep the project open, while the Senate will likely pass its resolution to continue with funding. “There’s money for MOX,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) added. “There is no cheaper alternative to MOX, and now is not the time to break an agreement with the Russians,” he said.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz acknowledges that construction at MOX will continue into fall, but warns that a long-term plan is needed. “We need a trajectory that gives adequate funding in a sustained way for the project,” Moniz said.
In response to claims that the Obama administration is considering repurposing Germany’s nuclear waste at the MOX plant, the South Carolina legislators affirmed that the state could not become a permanent home for nuclear waste, but instead a temporary one, in the absence of a repository like the one that had been planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “What we do not need is for this state to continue to be a dumping ground,” Haley said. “We’ll continue to fight.”
Graham also warned that the federal government could incur fines of $1 million per day if certain goals for moving the waste are not met. “The waste is going to leave South Carolina as promised, and if it doesn’t, the federal government is going to pay a fine,” Graham said.
