Analysis & Opinions - The Hill

Cancel the Plutonium Fuel Factory

| July 18, 2016

"Twenty years ago, in the Clinton Administration, both of us helped launch a program to build a factory to turn the excess plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons into fuel for nuclear reactors.  At that time, the full life-cycle cost estimate to make this plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel was expected to be less than $2 billion dollars.  Now, however, with official cost estimates ballooning to over $30 billion, it is clear that the project has become too expensive.  It is time to stop throwing good money after bad and pursue cheaper alternatives that will serve our national security better..."

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For Academic Citation: Bunn, Matthew and Gary Samore.“Cancel the Plutonium Fuel Factory.” The Hill, July 18, 2016.

The Authors

Gary Samore