Included among a budget proposal that likely won't go anywhere, the Obama Administration is recommending the end of a project that would create nuclear power by dismantling nuclear weapons.
"Time may finally be running out on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, a multibillion-dollar, over-budget federal project that has been hard to kill," reports James Risen. The headline of the story offers a translation of the jargon: A half-built nuclear plant might be too expensive to finish.
"The Energy Department has already spent about $4.5 billion on the half-built plant near Aiken, S.C., designed to make commercial reactor fuel out of plutonium from nuclear bombs," adds Risen. "New estimates place the ultimate cost of the facility at between $9.4 billion and $21 billion, and the outlay for the overall program, including related costs, could go as high as $30 billion."
Those costs, and an estimate that the project could be in operation by 2040, means that the Energy Department recommended abandoning the project in the federal budget released by the Obama Administration this week.
Meanwhile, state officials and members of the South Carolina congressional delegation, some of whom are also "the Republican Party's most determined opponents of government spending," have vowed to complete the project. The article includes a lot more back and forth between opponents and proponents of the project. The implications of the story reach out to Carlsbad, New Mexico, where an alternative approach to disposing of nuclear weapons would store the waste deep underground in salt formations.
FULL STORY: Half-Built Nuclear Fuel Plant in South Carolina Faces Test on Its Future
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.