US to build $1.6B Idaho facility for warships’ nuclear waste

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FILE - This May 6, 2015, file photo, a caution sign hangs on a fence in front of a building that houses depleted uranium at the EnergySolutions facility in Clive, Utah. Fears are being rekindled that a type of nuclear waste that grows more radioactive for 2 million years could end up buried in Utah's west desert now that the federal government is trying to block EnergySolutions' pending purchase of a company that has a site in Texas already approved to store the material, the Deseret News reports. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
This May 6, 2015 photo shows a caution sign hangs on a fence in front of a building that houses depleted uranium in Clive, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Navy and U.S. Department of Energy have announced that they’ll build a $1.65 billion facility at a nuclear site in eastern Idaho that will handle fuel waste from the nation’s fleet of nuclear-powered warships.

Officials on Tuesday said the new facility is needed at keeping nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines deployed.

The facility will be built at the Energy Department’s 890-square-mile site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory, considered the nation’s primary lab for nuclear research.

The decision concludes a lengthy environmental process that also looked at continuing using outdated facilities or overhauling them.

Officials say the new facility will operate through at least 2060 and can handle a new type of spent-fuel shipping container used by the latest warships.

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