The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received an operating licence application from an alliance of Duke, Cogema, and Stone & Webster (DCS) for a proposed mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility to be constructed at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

The facility will form part of a bilateral US and Russian Federation agreement to convert supplies of surplus weapons-grade plutonium by blending it with uranium to produce commercial MOX fuel.

The NRC issued construction approval for the facility March 2005.