As reported by the Los Alamos Monitor.
Much of the article discusses the cancellation of the U.S. Department of Energy's white elephant MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility (FFF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. MOX is short for uranium-plutonium Mixed Oxide. The article also discusses the Trump administration's hasty decision to try to make it up to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), for the "loss of MOX," by substituting in instead nuclear weapons plutonium pit production at SRS.
However, the issue of centralized interim storage of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel, targeted at southeast New Mexico by Holtec International and the Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance, is also discussed.
Please note that the purpose of the MOX FFF was NOT to "recycle" nuclear reactor waste, as the article incorrectly reports. It was instead to re-purpose weapons-grade plutonium, excess to military needs, into commercial atomic reactor fuel, as part of an international agreement with Russia to do the same on its end.
However, reprocessing of highly radioactive commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, to separate out fissile plutonium for reuse in reactor fuel, IS an open secret plan at Holtec/ELEA's CIS facility.
The article also leaves an incorrect impression in this paragraph:
Graham replied that the lifecycle to store just the plutonium that he said had a half-life of 24,100 years is what the real cost people in favor of an interim nuclear waste storage program should be looking at. He also said that the cost to finish the building would be about $5.3 billion.
Weapons-grade plutonium excess to U.S. military needs is NOT what is targeted for "interim storage" at the Holtec/ELEA CIS facility. What is targeted there is commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, which is highly radioactive.
However, the Trump administration is now proposing "dilute and dispose" of the 34 tons of weapons-grade plutonium excess to the military's need. It is targeting the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeast New Mexico for this.
The WIPP site and the targeted Holtec/ELEA CIS facility site are but a dozen or so miles apart in southeast New Mexico -- this is an attempt to turn the largely Hispanic region, with significant poverty issues in certain communities, that is already heavily polluted by fossil fuel and nuclear industries, into an even worse radioactive waste sacrifice zone than it already is. This environmental injustice must be stopped!