WASHINGTON (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and the state's congressional delegation are urging President Donald Trump to reconsider his administration's plan to shut down a half-built nuclear fuel facility in their state.
A federal appeals court last week allowed the Energy Department to go forward with plans to close the multi-billion dollar facility at the Savannah River Site near Aiken.
Closing the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility could cost hundreds of jobs and waste more than $17 billion already spent. The project is intended to reprocess weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for commercial reactors. But it is billions of dollars over budget and decades away from completion.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, said before a White House meeting on Thursday that shuttering the so-called MOX project was a "stupid decision."
