It’s a structure built to precise construction standards, in some cases to a tolerance of 1/16 in.—no small feat in a structure with 80 miles of piping, 170,000 cu yd of concrete and 35,000 tons of reinforcing steel. It’s also a building that could provide a use for spent nuclear-powerplant waste, help lower energy bills and even end nuclear proliferation.
There have been some missteps in construction of the $4.8-billion Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in Aiken, S.C., but more than two years into the project, joint-venture partners The Shaw Group Inc., Baton Rouge, La., and French nuclear specialist Areva Inc., Paris, have kept construction on time and on budget. A U.S. commission on nuclear waste toured the project, which is based on similar French technology to recycle spent uranium, earlier this month.