Login/Logout

*
*  

"I want to tell you that your fact sheet on the [Missile Technology Control Regime] is very well done and useful for me when I have to speak on MTCR issues."

– Amb. Thomas Hajnoczi
Chair, MTCR
May 19, 2021
DOE Terminates Troubled MOX Project
Share this

Latest ACA Resources


After years of delay and controversy, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Oct. 10 formally terminated the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility project at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The termination note sets in motion a yearlong winding down of construction, an outcome long fought by South Carolina lawmakers and other backers of the project intended to turn surplus weapons-grade plutonium into commercial reactor fuel. (See ACT, September 2018.) Sharply rising costs, long construction delays, and doubt about the financial feasibility of the project led U.S. officials to favor a less costly alternative known as dilute and dispose. The NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency in the Energy Department, is proposing to adapt the MOX fuel facility into a site for producing plutonium cores, a plan that critics say is excessively costly compared to expanding current pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In a last-ditch appeal, a group of South Carolina officials, including the state’s two senators, met on Oct. 18 at the White House with President Donald Trump, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, and other senior officials.—TERRY ATLAS