Photo of MOX plant under construction. (Courtesy Shaw Areva Mox Services)A power company in North Carolina says its contract to buy fuel made from weapons-grade plutonium at a plant near Augusta has expired.
A spokeswoman for Duke Energy, based in Charlotte, says the company did not renew the contract after re-negotiations broke down with Shaw Areva Mox Services, a private company building the plant that will process the fuel. That comes after apparent delays in production of the fuel, she says. Duke had planned to use the fuel in some of its nuclear reactors.
The U.S. Department of Energy is funding the plant's construction. At $4.8 billion, it's one of DOE's most expensive endeavors.
Critics have long argued the plant is a waste of government money and say the contract's expiration is a major blow to the mixed oxide fuel (MOX) plant at the Savannah River Site near Augusta. They say Duke was the plant's only customer so far. The plant, which is under construction, is expected to go online by 2016.
But Duke Energy says it still supports the plant's construction, and may later renew efforts to get the fuel.
Duke says it successfully used similar fuel from France in one of its reactors for nearly three years.
