(AP) -- AIKEN, S.C. (AP) -- Federal regulators have given the green light for licensing to proceed for a plant to make nuclear reactor fuel from plutonium waste at the old nuclear bomb plant in South Carolina.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report released Wednesday that plans for the mixed oxide fuel facility at the Savannah River Site near Aiken seem safe and would not pose undue risks to workers or the public.
Construction on the facility to convert weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel called MOX began in 2007. Officials say the facility is on schedule and should be up and running in 2016.
The nuclear weapons complex opened in the early 1950s and once produced plutonium and tritium for atomic bombs. The site's reactors have been shut down for more than 15 years.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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