The Savannah River MOX plant seems to have been a pork project, at least it seems it's been considered such by the last administration and the current one, but I think any decision involving Plutonium is pretty complex so it's hard to say that this was or was not the right decision.
It's refreshing to see the Trump administration taking the decision to cancel something when the reason is not "because Obama built it", at minimum.
As much as I'm all for nuclear I have to agree with axing this. The project cost far far more than it should have. The contractor basically kept going "oh, well x and y in the plant is actually going to cost more than we expected, this is all in the name of safety you know ;)". MOX plants in other nations have not cost this much.
If the US really wants MOX fuel then send their plutonium to France and get them to make fuel elements out of it for you.
just turn them into recreational nukes
To be absolutely fair, nukes are pretty much the safest way to store plutonium.
Just settle our debt by selling nukes and letting the free market handle it. Duh.
Better, sell then to a oil-rich developing country, then invade them for having WMDs.
Gee its like the stars align themselves for orange boy here!
Imagine if we actually did sell WMDs to Iraq and they just moved them faster than we could go find them
Sell to Oprah and Ellen in bulk so they can give away on their shows
'you get a nuke!' 'you get a nuke!' 'EVERYONE GET NUKES!'
NASA could use that to power space-craft, if I'm not mistaken.
Different isotope. RTGs use Pu-238 which isn't fissionable compared to weapons grade Pu-239. It's a wonky process to get Pu-238, its made by neutron irradiating Np-237 which is extracted during U-235 fission.
Didn't realize that Savannah MOX was really that much of a cash cow, shame though. We need more nuclear solutions on the table that don't have ridiculous cost overruns because of contractors.
