SC

MOX: Shut It Down

FOR ONCE, BARACK OBAMA IS CORRECT …  South Carolina elected officials – Democratic and Republican – are raising holy hell this week over a story we broke a month ago. We’re referring of course to the imminent shutdown of the U.S. Department of Energy’s yet-to-be-completed mixed-oxide fuel (or “MOX”) facility…

FOR ONCE, BARACK OBAMA IS CORRECT … 

South Carolina elected officials – Democratic and Republican – are raising holy hell this week over a story we broke a month ago.

We’re referring of course to the imminent shutdown of the U.S. Department of Energy’s yet-to-be-completed mixed-oxide fuel (or “MOX”) facility in Aiken County, S.C.

Wait … hold up. Barack Obama’s Energy Department is shutting down a facility that hasn’t even been completed yet? Correct … and he’s absolutely right in doing so.

The MOX facility was supposed to have been completed in 2007 at a cost of $1.6 billion to taxpayers – but nearly $4 billion later it still isn’t finished, and the total tab for the project is now nearing $10 billion. Oh, and there’s a report on the cost overruns associated with this project that will make your blood boil.

Part of the Savannah River Site, the MOX facility was supposed to turn weapons grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors – but it’s taken so long to build that its intended purpose is on the verge of becoming antiquated.

Seriously if you’ve been in the room with nuclear scientists (and we have) they’ll tell you MOX isn’t even the most efficient means of turning these destructive materials into productive energy.

(It’s all about the isotopes, baby).

So the question now is this: Do we spend another $6 billion (at minimum) on a project that has yet to demonstrate an ability to differentiate its hindquarters from its headquarters? Or do we punt?

Obama wants to punt … while S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, Attorney General Alan Wilson, S.C. Sen. Vincent Sheheen and dozens of other Palmetto politicians desperate to be seen as “pro-jobs” want taxpayers to continue pumping hundreds of millions of dollars a year into the facility (with no promise it will ever be completed).

This website is obviously no friend to Obama, but on this one … he’s right.

MOX had its chance. And it failed miserably.

Haley’s advocacy on this project is particularly surprising given what she said about these workers a few short years ago.

“Down on River Site, they were hiring a few hundred people, and when we sat down and talked to them … they said of everybody they interviewed, half of them failed a drug test, and of the half that was left, of that 50 percent, the other half couldn’t read and write properly,” Haley told a group of Lexington County, S.C. Rotarians in September 2011.

Challenged to provide documentation for this bizarre claim, Haley initially vowed to do so … but later backed down completely.

Now she’s the heroine saving these positions?

Please …

We understand perfectly well that discontinuing federal funding for this project will result in the loss of 1,800 South Carolina jobs (which is why so many politicians are tripping over themselves to be seen on this issue).

Too bad.

They’re wrong. Obama (for once) is right.

Shut. It. Down.

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41 comments

The Enquirer March 19, 2014 at 8:33 pm

So here’s the only question on my mind on this whole debacle, do we get stuck with nuclear waste sitting in state now with way to get rid of it?

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euwe max March 19, 2014 at 9:15 pm

I’m sure Nikki can find some Sikh intermediaries to buy it at a premium.

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shifty henry March 19, 2014 at 11:09 pm

It looks purty – perhaps the Sikhs could use it for a new temple. Nikki can work up the numbers for that… couldn’t she? Hell, she could even bring them over from Georgia….heh!..heh!

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euwe max March 20, 2014 at 12:21 am

She has contacts in Russia?

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shifty henry March 20, 2014 at 12:33 am

ok, I edited it …..

euwe max March 20, 2014 at 12:47 am

oh *that* Georgia!

Well, did you know Georgia has an interesting take on freedom of speech?

In my ‘sowing wild oats’ days, I had a 10 foot dish in the back yard and a receiver with a code cracker chip from the gator state. I used to watch everything the Clarke Belt had to offer – every channel unlocked. There were.. oh, I don’t know 6? Hard (real hard) core porn transponders on two satellites. Not that I watched them or anything, but it was a pretty good quality picture, and they rarely repeated a selection.

Anyway.. since I was into satellite porn and shit, I just so happened to notice that Georgia had a law that prohibited satellite dishes in one’s back yard if the receiver had a subscription for one of those porn channels. Can you even *imagine* how backward they had to be to actually *pass* a law like that?

Porn police! Open up!!!

The signal is broadcast onto your property, but the state says it cannot be used by you. Like Russia, huh? Only worse, since it’s porn not politics.

Well, I can’t be too hard on Georgia, even though they had some poor guy dragged into court for performing cunnilingus on his wife… especially since the federal courts determined that even though the satellite signal was shining on your property, you didn’t have the right to decrypt it without the permission of the license holder… but the license holder had the right to invade your property with the microwaves without your permission.

It’s like we’re living in some kind of Republican hell… or something.

…oh yeah, and did you know that owls aren’t that smart?

tomstickler March 20, 2014 at 9:32 am

“but the license holder had the right to invade your property with the microwaves without your permission.”

An aluminum-foil chapeau can shelter you from that.

euwe max March 20, 2014 at 10:16 am

Yeah, but what about taking a shower, or getting a haircut? I looked into setting up a Faraday cage around my house, and having a Faraday suit made, but my HA won’t let me put one up, and I’m afraid Republicans will laugh at me if I put on a copper suit.

euwe max March 20, 2014 at 12:54 am

It looks purty
——
They should leave it like that and charge admission to it, calling it modern art.

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west_rhino March 20, 2014 at 12:15 pm

Use the billion, um trillion dollar hole that finances Harry Reid’s slush fund in Nevada, that Yucca Mountain thing

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Scooter March 19, 2014 at 8:38 pm

had it ben in Clyburn’s district, Bozo would have been all for it.

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euwe max March 19, 2014 at 9:14 pm

Part of the Savannah River Site, the MOX facility was supposed to turn weapons grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors
———-
And then shipped to Fukishima to kill off the Japs.

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CNSYD March 19, 2014 at 9:42 pm

“Seriously if you’ve been in the room with nuclear scientists (and we have)
they’ll tell you MOX isn’t even the most efficient means of turning
these destructive materials into productive energy.”

Sic Willie conversing with “nuclear scientists”. That’s a good one. So who are these men of science and what are qualifications as subject matter experts? Per Sic Willie they have the magic formula to solve this problem. Has it been demonstrated to be commercially viable? Or is it still just scribbles on the back of an envelope?

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Smirks March 20, 2014 at 8:14 am

You really seem to be anti-FITS for the sake of being anti-FITS.

If you have information to refute what Willie said regarding MOX, please share, otherwise you really aren’t helping here.

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CNSYD March 20, 2014 at 8:30 am

So EXACTLY what did he say? He was in the company of unnamed “nuclear scientists” who have a better mouse trap of which absolutely no details are provided. Typical Sic Willie. This is “anti-FITS”? What is there to refute. He said absolutely nothing.

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Bible Thumper March 19, 2014 at 10:06 pm

Science and cost aside. It will be decided by judges. What are the legal arguments on each side?

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Anonymous March 19, 2014 at 10:59 pm

Save me, God. Not Jean Toal.

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Jim Clyburn March 19, 2014 at 11:06 pm

“The MOX facility was supposed to have been completed in 2007 at a cost of $1.6 billion to taxpayers – but nearly $4 billion later it still isn’t finished, and the total tab for the project is now nearing $10 billion.”

We can help you with how to hide what is already gone and then help you with writing the proposal to get that mo’ money amount. Call my office in Washington. Or better, just come by with a couple of envelopes of cash and we will be sure checks are cut back to you – like at SCSU, In Orangeburg, SC, dumb ass. Jim

ps. I have a third cousin who has a son whose wife is an engineer and she needs a job. After we count the cash in the envelope, if there is a job for this nice young lady, that might help yo’ case. JC

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shifty henry March 19, 2014 at 11:14 pm

Hey, there, Jimbo — can’t you use it for a branch of SC State? It would be perfect for the classes in Higher Mathmatics, Engineering and Nuclear Sciences. Ooops! I should also mention the Arts — how about turning that purty building into a giant (oh yes)….RUBIK’S CUBE..!!

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euwe max March 20, 2014 at 11:34 am

The MOX facility was supposed to have been completed in 2007 at a cost of $1.6 billion to taxpayers – but nearly $4 billion later it still isn’t finished, and the total tab for the project is now nearing $10 billion.”

——-
Yeah, but didn’t it provide those 1800 jobs longer?

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Smirks March 20, 2014 at 8:09 am

No no no, we have to keep funding this disaster of a project, because it makes a few state politicians look good if they save our jerbs! Who cares how many more millions get pissed away trying poorly to complete this thing?

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GrandTango March 20, 2014 at 8:17 am

Liberal-tarians, like FITS, have sat on their ignorant @$$#$ and the let the system consume every facet of American life….now they think they can just rip the rug out from under everybody and say F*#k you, RonPaul wants to look good to the stupid and irresponsible…

It’s like opening the Treasury to Gay marriage “partners’ looking for more gov’t handouts…even if was a good idea (it’s not) Obama has so F*#ked up the economy, we simply cannot afford it…

While FITS will search high and low for any reason to BASH any Republican, he does the same to try to Suck-off his lord-god Obama…this is just another example…

If Obama would get his sorry @$$ out of the way, cut taxes, drill, work w/ business and let the economy grow…maybe we could afford to bleed these jobs, and make them up elsewhere..

But FITS has not one F*#king answer to the people who cannot find a job. And Dumb@$$#$ (like FITS, Sanford and Obama) making decisions ARE the problem…

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Smirks March 20, 2014 at 8:26 am

Here’s something job seekers can try:

“Why should I hire you, and not some other guy?”

“Well, what if the other guy turns out to be GrandTango?”

“…When can you start?”

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GrandTango March 20, 2014 at 10:33 am

I must’ve hit the Nail on the Head…

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Rocky March 20, 2014 at 10:58 am

Wait a minute. The GOP Congress and GWB allocate a huge multi-billion dollar reach around for South Carolina in the early years of the Bush Administration that turns into a complete cluster – so Obama pulls the plug to stop wasting tax payer money, and according to Grande Tangita it’s all because Obama is a gay loving money waster.

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SCBlueWoman March 20, 2014 at 11:17 am

GT is senseless.

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GrandTango March 20, 2014 at 12:48 pm

Quit pandering to your lord-god Obama. He’s a total F*#k up, and makes you look stupid shilling for him…

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Rocky March 20, 2014 at 1:05 pm

Well, better than supporting your heroes like Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Nikki Haley.

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GrandTango March 20, 2014 at 1:59 pm

Not so sure about that…none of those you mentioned have, single-handedly so damaged the country as Obama has…

Haley has kept us from some of the Obama disaster, and we prospered under Bush, despite Graham and McCain…we just can’t tolerate McCain and Graham now, because Obama is such a F*#k up…there is no room for error. And that have not rejected everything that he stands for…

Rocky March 20, 2014 at 3:14 pm

Don’t see the “so damaged the country” – you know thinkin’ about it, if Bush days were so great, how come the Great Recession came about under his watch? Wasn’t he the guy in the White House who took over in 2001 with the stock market at 10,500, and left in Jan 2009 with the stock market at 7,900? Let’s see – 10,500 minus 7,900 – carry the one, change the 0 to a 9, that’s 2,600 down, or a drop of 25%. OK, other guy, starts at 7,900 stock market, today it’s at 16,312.41 this very second – move the 1 over, carry the 3, add, divide by original – hey, that’s an increase of over 100%. So one guy – GWB who you say gave us great prosperity – destroyed shareholder value by 25% – he’s a savior. Guy who oversees the economy where stock values double in only 5 years – he’s destroying America. If I’m judging by my stock and 401K portfolios – I gotta tell ya – I’m sticking with the black guy.

Oh, you were talking about gays. Sorry.

GrandTango March 20, 2014 at 3:17 pm

Give it up you F*#king Idiot..People have figured Obama out..his approval numbers are in the 30s, and that’s w/ a media sucking him off, daily…

Unfortunately, most people found out what he is…way too late…

Rocky March 20, 2014 at 3:38 pm

Gallup poll today has approval at 45, Rasmussen has it at 49. What do you have some Bush fixation? That’s the guy that was in the 30% range – it’s just that your boy toy Hannity keeps incorrectly reading the prompter. By the way – based on facts and statements I’m not an idiot – let alone the something idiot.

GrandTango March 20, 2014 at 4:06 pm

Only 45% cherry picking a poll…LMAO…Hahahahahaha…and your stupid @$$ is bragging…
With a Biillion-Dollar–day Industrial Media Complex propping up that son of a b!*#h…and all you can do is 45%…Bush was there with a constant Bludgeoning of lies and liberal myths against, him..and was not always out trying to beg people to believe him, like your lord-god…
You may be the Dumbest Mother-F*#ker on Earth…but I cannot say that, because there are a lot of Obama-flavor Kool-Aid drinkers, who just cannot admit what a TOTAL F*#k up your deity is…
I think yall know if you admit what he is…Liberalism dies w/ him…And that IS happening…Thank God Almighty, Thank God Almighty…even the GOP can’t lose it now, because of the colossal failure Obama is…And the Tea PARTY is poised to Define you for what you are…

Rocky March 20, 2014 at 4:55 pm

You so funny.

aikencounty March 20, 2014 at 11:36 am

I find hypocritical that NIMRATA is lobbying to save these jobs.
At present there are approximately 1200 UNION construction workers on site.
I must point out a glaring error , that has been reported to FITZ previously, construction on MOX BEGAN in 2007. I know, I was there, on the original duct banks( an electrical term).
The answer to the PU dilema is “ENCAPSULATION”.
DISQUS hosed up my account, I have posted as DWB619, so now i am aikencounty.
YOU BETCHA!

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west_rhino March 20, 2014 at 12:14 pm

Well, Carter sank Chem_Nuclear’s attempt to do the MOX thing without Fed dollars, ’cause the “nuclear scientist” thought it caused global warming and the plant ought to be in Plains, Ga.

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aikencounty March 20, 2014 at 1:55 pm

WRONG!
He stopped it because he had a problem with private industry sitting on plutonium.

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west_rhino March 26, 2014 at 9:35 am

which by extension should have shut down PANTEX in Texas, Westinghouse nuclear fuels in Columbia and GE’s fuels division in NC, but…

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SomalianRoadCorp March 21, 2014 at 8:47 am

We shouldn’t have even been screwing around with this if Harry Reid didn’t break the law and stop the Yucca Mtn project as soon as Obama was inaugurated……as a kind gesture, I’m sure.

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DidjaKnow009 March 21, 2014 at 11:23 am

For all interested, ENENEWS is a great source for nuclear energy issues.

Tons of info on ENENEWS and there’s even a Forum there of people with radiation detectors from around the world posting their radiation readings.

Highly recommended.

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DidjaKnow009 March 21, 2014 at 11:25 am

South Carolina has the best testing, freshest tasting water in the world, imho.
Instead of South Carolina polluting the state with nuclear power plants and nuclear waste, they could have bottled their water and sold it and South Carolina would have been the richest state in the country.
Now instead, South Carolina is polluted with nuclear waste for the next 250,000 years.

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