A federal judge on June 7 granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Dept. of Energy from enacting a stop work order that would have cancelled construction of the over-budget, behind-schedule MOX project at Savannah River Site.
With the idea of converting the unfinished MOX facility into a manufacturing plant for nuclear weapons components, Energy Secretary Rick Perry on May 10 waived the requirement to use funds on construction and related support activities for the massively over-budget project at Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
With the April 2016 completion of the $2.3-billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), more than a half-century’s worth of radioactive liquid produced as part of the manufacture of nuclear materials at the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Savannah River site can now be processed for safe, environmentally sound disposal.
The Dept. of Energy continued its campaign to halt construction of the multibillion-dollar Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project, often referred to as MOX, this time by pointing out construction errors and defects during a Sept. 8 media tour of the Savannah River Site facility.
A recent U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report noted that safety-related structural welds at the Savannah River site’s Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, or MOX, failed to meet industry specifications, according to The Augusta Chronicle.
States are scrambling to site small modular nuclear reactors under development and funded by $452 million in federal grants; four design concepts have been submitted by companies.
