Supreme Court lets US stop work on $8B SC nuclear fuel plant
Source: Associated Press
Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press
Updated 12:21 pm CDT, Tuesday, October 15, 2019
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The federal government does not have to restart construction on a nuclear fuel facility in South Carolina that it abandoned after spending nearly $8 billion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The justices refused without comment to hear South Carolina's appeal of a lower court decision last October that allowed the U.S. Energy Department to stop building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site near Aiken.
Work on the plant started nearly two decades ago. Its goal was to take plutonium used in nuclear weapons built during the Cold War and convert it into a fuel called MOX to run nuclear plants around the world.
The facility was over budget and behind schedule nearly from the start. It was still decades away from completion when President Barack Obama's final budget in 2016 pulled funding. Republicans in South Carolina asked President Donald Trump to restart the project, but his administration has refused.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Supreme-Court-lets-US-stop-work-on-8B-SC-nuclear-14535632.php
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