South Carolina sues U.S. Energy Department to save reactor fuel plant

By Harriet McLeod, Reuters

South Carolina sued the U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday over the federal government’s plans to scrap a plutonium recycling plant that has been under construction for years in the state, arguing it violates a nuclear non-proliferation treaty with Russia.

The plant, called MOX for Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, was intended to turn leftover weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel.

But in a budget request to Congress last week for the fiscal year 2015, the National Nuclear Security Administration proposed suspending the plant, citing cost overruns for the $30 billion project, which is about 60 percent complete … more