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Nuclear waste remains one of the most misunderstood aspects of modern energy production in the United States. Critics continue to portray it as a dangerous, unsolvable problem, yet the country has managed it safely and effectively for decades with an impeccable safety record. 

Spent fuel from commercial reactors sits securely in pools and dry casks at more than 70 sites across 35 states. Transportation casks have traveled millions of miles without any releases. Not that there was ever a concern for one of these casks breaking open, considering their testing involves being dropped from helicopters and struck by a rocket-propelled locomotive...

Nuclear waste shipping casks have been through a hell of a lot of testing. Now with Red Alert music. pic.twitter.com/D28AgF9Zgp

— Nick Touran (@whatisnuclear) January 17, 2026

France reprocesses the vast majority of its used fuel, demonstrating viable technology at commercial scale. In the United States, no significant radiation releases have occurred from commercial nuclear waste storage or handling in over half a century.

We previously covered Visual Capitalist's depiction of nuclear waste around the world and how the most dangerous waste represents less than a quarter of one percent of the total nuclear waste. 

A recent Utility Dive article highlights shifting approaches to this issue and examines the Department of Energy’s proposal for “Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses.” These facilities would manage the entire nuclear fuel cycle, including reprocessing or recycling of the nation’s approximately 95,000 metric tons of spent fuel, which increases by roughly 2,000 tons each year. 

The campuses aim to combine waste management with regional economic benefits, creating long-term jobs and revenue streams for host states. Interest has already emerged from several states, including Utah, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, Idaho, and Nebraska.

TN is the global epicenter of nuclear energy, & we're grateful for a new opportunity to lead the nation with a proposal to locate a @ENERGY Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus in Oak Ridge.

Link: https://t.co/019O2Hu3Sc pic.twitter.com/26NfsQahP4

— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) April 2, 2026

U.S. taxpayers currently bear the costs for waste management and legacy cleanup. The DOE’s Environmental Management program operates with an annual budget exceeding $8 billion, while the federal government’s liability for permanent disposal now stands at more than $56 billion. The Trump administration also recently asked for an expansion of the funding. 

Yet this material increasingly looks like a valuable resource rather than solely a liability. Private companies are beginning to compete aggressively for access to spent nuclear fuel. The DOE recently awarded over $19 million to firms including Oklo, Curio Solutions, Flibe Energy, and SHINE Technologies to advance recycling, transmutation, and isotope-harvesting technologies. 

Startups view the material as a feedstock for new reactor fuel, medical isotopes, and industrial applications rather than waste. As demand grows for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) and specialized isotopes, competition for this resource is expected to intensify.

Nuclear waste is incredibly hazardous, if mishandled. But, America has not mishandled it. With private-sector innovation now treating spent fuel as a strategic asset, the longstanding “problem” is transforming into an economic opportunity.
 

U.S. and Ukrainian officials have drafted a memorandum that could open a formal channel for Kiev to export battle-tested war technology to the U.S., while also easing the path for U.S. defense firms to form joint ventures with Ukrainian "war unicorns" to mass-produce low-cost, one-way attack drones.

The report comes from CBS News, citing three sources familiar with the matter, who say U.S. State Department officials and Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, are working on a new defense deal that would capitalize on innovations forged during the four-year grinding war in Ukraine, such as FPVs, AI kill chains, ground robots, drones, and other low-cost technologies that are now proliferating around the world.

Two weeks ago, we pointed out that it was inevitable that Ukrainian drone and counter-drone technologies would soon be exported to the U.S. We tracked U.S.-based Axon's investment deal flow with Ukrainian firms, which suggested this technology was inbound for the U.S. market. Axon's angle is selling to police forces nationwide.

We also noted that the passive acoustics early-warning counter-drone sector is going to heat up (read here), especially in the era of data centers. There are Ukrainian firms with battle-tested counter-UAS systems that the U.S. badly needs.

Also, last month, we joked that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went full "Lord of War" and could become the world's top dealer of low-cost drone interceptors.

To our amazement, the U.S.-Iran conflict appears to have accelerated this:

• Zelensky Touts That 20 Countries Seek Ukraine Drone Deals

We noted last month:

Ukraine's capital markets have been frozen by war, leaving many of the country's battlefield-proven "war unicorns" starved of traditional funding. However, the Middle East conflict has accelerated a new export pathway, as drone warfare and AI-enabled kill chains reshape how militaries think about defense.

This is exactly what the CBS report said:

Drone collaboration with the U.S., Ukrainian officials told CBS News, would be mutually beneficial, as American financing would help both countries expand their defense production output.

Our view is that a flood of Ukrainian defense firms will transfer battlefield-proven technologies into the U.S. market, tap into deep pools of capital, and leverage underused industrial capacity to scale production of low-cost attack drones and interceptors - this is exactly what the Department of War wants.

This comes as Russia, China, and a growing list of countries race to stockpile drones and interceptors before the next major conflict.

Russia on Tuesday announced that it has successfully completed a test of the "Sarmat" intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a new 'doomsday' weapon which has had a troubled roll out and development, but which has not yet been fully deployed as part of Russia's military arsenal. 

While in 2023 the cutting edge heavy missile was reportedly put on 'combat alert' - according to some headlines at the time - the following year saw at least one test deemed unsuccessful and a failure. This was seen as delaying its full combat deployment.

Interfax was the first to report Tuesday's new Sarmat test, with Russian President Putin in follow-up remarking that its range could exceed 35,000. And Reuters has followed with:

Russia has ?successfully tested ?its new Sarmat intercontinental ?ballistic missile, ?Sergei Karakayev, the ?commander ?of the strategic ?missile forces, told Russian President ?Vladimir ?Putin on Tuesday. Putin said ?that ?Russia planned to put the ?Sarmat ?on ?combat duty by ?the end ?of ?this year.

The nuclear-capable Sarmat ICBM was previously touted by President Putin as being capable hitting "any target on Earth" - and is widely believed to be by far the longest-range missile in Russia's arsenal (or in the world for that matter). It's been nicknamed by NATO the "SATAN II". 

The Sarmat, which is in a "superheavy" class of missiles, has a short initial boost phase which gives it better ability to elude all conventional anti-missile defense systems, given this results in a much smaller window of time to track it. By design, its super long-range gives it the ability to reach targets thousands of missiles away in the United States or Europe.

According to its specifications, it's by far the heaviest missile Russia possesses - at over 200 tons - and heavier than all foreign competitors: 

This allows it to carry around 15 warheads, up to 750kt. (The bomb US dropped on Hiroshima was 15kt.)

This would be enough to wipe out a country the size of France. It can also carry hypersonic missiles, rendering most missile defense systems ineffective.

It has long been in development - since 2009 - and has been in testing phase for many years, some test flights of which may have failed. The Sarmat has been touted as being able to reach speeds of nearly 16,000 mph.

Putin early in the program described: "The new complex has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defense. It has no analogues in the world and won't have for a long time to come."

?? President Putin Receives Report on Successful ‘Sarmat’ Intercontinental Missile Test – Kremlin

The successful launch will allow the first regiment to be put on duty by the end of the year, according to the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces.

??: Russian MoD pic.twitter.com/6euvdKssds

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) May 12, 2026

But despite this rosy presentation of the Sarmat's purported capabilities, it has faced an uphill battle from the start, and there were manufacturing problems being reported even nearly a decade ago. For example:

The heavy, liquid-fueled Sarmat ICBM is being developed as a replacement for Russia’s older R-36M missile (NATO Reporting name: SS-18 Satan). The Sarmat’s large payload will allow for up to 10 heavy warheads or 15 lighter ones, or as many as 24 hypersonic Yu-71 glide vehicles (Sputnik News, June 11, 2016). Production of the new missile and its prototype was entrusted to the Krasnoyarsk Machine Building Plant (Krasmash), which suffers from serious equipment depreciation issues—in 2010, fewer than 20 percent of machines at its fabrication facility were less than 20 years old (T. V. Yankova, A. M. Ragozina, “Techno-Economic Justification of Equipment Modernization at Krasmash,” Actual Problems of Aviation and Cosmonautics, No. 6: 2, 2010). The quality and lead time of the order will depend on the modernization of the production facilities at Krasmash. Efforts toward this end have already started: more than 16 billion rubles ($274 million) will reportedly be invested by 2019. And Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has taken a personal interest in making sure these modernization goals are met.

But by now the Kremlin is stressing that prior troubles have been resolved and smoothed out, and that this nuclear-capable beast is set to be the heavy ballistic long-range missile of Russia's future defense.

Via Remix News,

Last week, reports that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is investigating France’s right-wing, anti-migration party National Rally (RN) for misallocation of EU funds made the rounds. At its core, the case involves a complaint filed last December by the association AC!! Anti-Corruption with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) in Paris. 

These allegations have already been contested by RN, but the party must also now face scrutiny from Brussels, as the funds involved include EU money.

The charge is that the National Rally misused the funds by allocating money received for media training for its leader, Jordan Bardella, not for his work as an MEP, but with the aim of helping him to prepare for France’s 2027 presidential election. Other members of the party have also been named in connection with the same charge.

Bardella posted on X that the investigation is not news and certainly nothing new for the party, labeling the charges as politically motivated slander.

Nous n’avons strictement rien à nous reprocher. L’association à l’origine de la plainte est une organisation d’extrême-gauche revendiquée, dont les déclarations agressives laissent peu de doute quant à leurs intentions.

J’ai déposé plainte il y a plusieurs semaines pour… https://t.co/GNkyGB5lbd

— Jordan Bardella (@J_Bardella) May 7, 2026

“We have absolutely nothing to reproach ourselves for. The association behind the complaint is a self-proclaimed far-left organization, whose aggressive statements leave little doubt as to their intentions. I filed a complaint several weeks ago for slanderous denunciation,” he wrote, while assuring that he and his party would fully cooperate with the EPPO.

National Rally has been in the top spot in recent polling, despite its former leader, Marine Le Pen, having been sidelined by a similar case last year. She is appealing that decision, but for now has made it clear that Bardella will run on the RN ticket for president.

The party’s popularity, with or without Le Pen, cannot be a surprise to its rivals, given the slew of issues France has been suffering from due to its policy of mass immigration and lax deportation: Elderly rape, minor prostitution, failing education, robberies, violent rape, concerns over sharia law, and murder. As the mother of 18-year-old Théo, who was stabbed to death by a Senegalese migrant who ended up avoiding prison, said: “You can kill in France with impunity.”

Meanwhile, the media and the left prefer not to draw attention to the link between increased migration and violence.

And yet, a new website and real estate browser extension for Chrome is offering data on immigration levels, insecurity, and Islamization rates of neighborhoods for prospective buyers in the latest sign that the French public is highly concerned about record-breaking numbers of immigrants.

According to a recent ifop poll, 60 percent of French believe there is “a replacement of the French population by non-European populations, mainly from the African continent.” The same poll found that 66 percent see it as a bad development. Only 9 percent noted it as good.

This is a major factor why the National Rally has been surging in the polls, and why left-wing parties and activist organizations will do anything to bring them down — first targeting Le Pen and now Bardella. Other party politicians and staff members have been implicated in both cases.

Such efforts are not unique to France, with efforts ongoing for years over in Germany to bring down the anti-migration AfD party, which has also seen a massive rise in popularity.

With reports indicating France is spending over €2 billion a year on housing and healthcare for asylum seekers and illegal migrants, RN’s rivals will need more than accusations of misappropriated funds to stop voters from exercising their desire for change.

Read more here...

One day after vehemently denying speculation that India plans to raise duties on gold and silver imports following ?Prime Minister Narendra Modi's urging people to ?avoid buying ?gold for a year ?due ?to the impact of the Iran war, India did in fact raise import tariffs on gold and silver in an attempt to defend its currency, a surprise move as the country races to limit the damage from the Middle East war and to shore up foreign-exchange reserves.

The government has more than doubled import taxes on gold and silver to about 15% from 6%, according to two official orders, imposing a 10% basic customs duty alongside a 5% agriculture infrastructure and development levy.

The hikes, aiming to dampen demand in the world’s second-largest bullion market, followed a rare weekend appeal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he urged citizens to forgo gold purchases as well as unnecessary foreign travel in order to help hold up the currency. The Indian rupee has plunged more than 6% in 2026 with most of the losses occurring after the Iran war started; the currency is on pace to drop to 100 vs the US dollar in the coming weeks.

New Delhi is also weighing other emergency steps, including raising fuel prices and curbing non-essential imports like electronic goods.

India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, has been hit hard by the inflationary shock caused by energy disruptions in the Persian Gulf. 

Higher import bills have driven sharp foreign-exchange outflows, pushing the rupee down to a record low and prompting the Reserve Bank of India to step in and sell dollars. And the fact that gold is the country’s largest import item after crude oil does not help, which is why India is doing everything in its power to limit capital outflows. 

Gold is deeply ingrained in Indian culture and plays a vital role in savings, weddings and religious festivals. India meets almost of all its demand through imports, with 710 tons of gold coming in last year. 

Of course, attempts by the government to limit capital outflows via precious metals will only encourage the population to find alternative mechanisms to preserve purchasing power, and it is only a matter of time before India joins the rest of the financially suppressed developing world in actively pursuing such non-fiat alternatives as tether and bitcoin if the traditional gold and silver pathways are limited. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spent roughly four hours on the witness stand Tuesday defending the company’s shift from a nonprofit to a for-profit model, directly rebutting Elon Musk’s claims that he and co-founder Greg Brockman “stole a charity” when they restructured the artificial intelligence lab.

"I think it’s wonderful that through the hard work of thousands of people … we’ve been able to create one of largest nonprofits in the world, [and] that it has this role to protect the technology and the impact on the world," Altman told the court. 

The testimony came during the third week of Musk’s federal lawsuit against Altman, Brockman, and OpenAI in U.S. District Court in Oakland, California. Musk, who helped found OpenAI in 2015 but left its board in 2018, accuses the pair of betraying the original mission to develop safe AI for humanity after he provided tens of millions in early funding. He is seeking Altman’s and Brockman’s removal from leadership, more than $150 billion in damages, and the unwinding of OpenAI’s 2019 conversion to a for-profit structure now backed heavily by Microsoft. Musk has accused the pair of bilking him out of $38 million in donations, then restructuring the nonprofit lab they coufounded by exclusively licensing their flagship product to Microsoft. This, Musk's team argues, betrayed OpenAI's founding mission to operate an open-source charity that would counter the existential risks of profit-driven AI. 

Altman told the jury that Musk had pushed for significant personal control from the outset, including an early proposal that he receive 90 percent equity in the company - an idea Altman said made him “extremely uncomfortable.” He also rejected Musk’s suggestion of a merger with Tesla, saying it would have compromised OpenAI’s independence because “Tesla needs to serve its customers and sell cars.”

On the central issue of the for-profit conversion, Altman testified that Musk either supported the move or did not oppose it. “Quite the opposite,” he said when asked whether Musk had resisted the change. Altman portrayed Musk’s current lawsuit as driven by “sour grapes” after Musk launched the rival xAI lab, attempted to poach OpenAI researchers, and engaged in what Altman described as “business interference.”

Musk, meanwhile, told the court "You can’t just steal a charity."

Altman shot back when his turn came: "No, you can’t steal it, but Mr. Musk did try to kill it."

As the Epoch Times notes further, Altman said Musk abandoned the company in 2018 to start his own for-profit competitor, xAI, when other founders rejected his bid to take full control of the operation.

“I thought incredibly highly of Elon, and felt like he had abandoned us, not come through on his promises,” Altman said, suggesting Elon’s withdrawal of support jeopardized the mission. “We were left for dead.”

He acknowledged Musk was a critical contributor but added, “I also wish he would stop doing what he is doing here, which in my opinion is jealousy as we get more and more successful.”

In the bitter feud between the former friends and cofounders, which in recent years has unfurled on social media, both volley accusations of betrayal, double-dealing and hypocrisy.

Altman on Tuesday described his tumultuous tenure at OpenAI’s helm as painful and difficult, its successes unimaginable just a decade prior.

The once-embattled and underfunded nonprofit startup, founded in 2015, was recently valued at $852 billion following a 2025 restructuring as a public benefit corporation, in which the nonprofit arm received a 26 percent stake in the for-profit, based on a transfer of intellectual property. Microsoft, following $13 billion in investments since 2019, currently owns a 27 percent stake in the company.

‘Hurt and Angry’

Of the circumstances surrounding his chaotic 2023 ouster by former nonprofit board members, who at the time cited his “consistent pattern of lying” and concerns over safety protocol issues, Altman said it was one of the most painful moments in his life.

“I had poured the last years of my life into this. I was watching it about to be destroyed. … I was very angry and hurt and upset. It felt like an incredible betrayal,” he said, noting he could have made a lot of money and had a “much easier life” if he had gone to work for Microsoft.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified Monday that at the time, he offered to create an AI project for Altman, Brockman and any potentially departing employees, in an effort to prevent the wholesale implosion of OpenAI—and along with it his company’s formidable investments.

Musk alleges Microsoft “methodically entrenched itself” into OpenAI, helping to engineer the 2023 “coup” and seize the company’s board of directors.

Altman returned to OpenAI just days later, at the board’s invitation, he said, because he “cared about the mission and the people,” and thought it would be the last chance to create an AI lab with OpenAI’s unique mission and structure.

“I was not trying to deceive the board,” Altman said. “I was certainly not trying to do anything other than make safe AI and distribute it to humanity. I feel badly for the misunderstandings … but that was never my intent.”

In court Tuesday, Steven Molo, an attorney for Musk, pressed Altman about his conditions for return, which included firing the original board—and vetting a new one with Nadella’s approval. 

Musk is suing Microsoft for aiding and abetting OpenAI’s breach of a charitable trust, allegations Nadella disputed when he testified May 11 about his involvement in the messy 2023 shakeup and a landmark financial agreement between the two companies the same year.

Power Struggle

Following a 2017 milestone demonstration of OpenAI technology at a gaming event, the founders realized they had a chance at becoming competitive but would need significantly more capital and computing power to take on Google, at the time an undisputed leader in the field.

Each floated various ideas for profit and nonprofit configurations; Musk at one point suggested rolling OpenAI into Tesla. Throughout late 2017 and early 2018, discussions became more contentious as the power struggle between Musk and Altman intensified.

At one point, Altman said, Musk suggested giving himself a 90 percent equity stake in a for-profit entity; Musk meanwhile, pointed out that he proposed taking an initial majority stake that would be diluted with additional investment over time.

Altman said Tuesday that Musk contributed only 28 percent of the nonprofit’s funding from 2015 to 2020, and failed to come through on a $1 billion pledge, leaving the startup with few options.

Molo pressed Altman, suggesting he had a “fixation” with being CEO. The attorney referenced an email from Brockman and fellow cofounder Ilya Sutskever during the period of intense negotiations over the future funding and structure of OpenAI.

“We don’t understand why the CEO title is so important to you. Your stated reasons have changed, and it’s hard to really understand what’s driving it,” the two wrote. “Is AGI  your primary motivation? How does it connect to your political goals?”

Artificial General Intelligence refers (AGI) generally refers to the theoretical point at which machine “intelligence” meets or surpasses human cognitive abilities and can operate autonomously, which many experts view as an existential threat to humanity. Musk cites the risks of runaway AGI as the express motivation for founding OpenAI.

Altman on Tuesday said, by way of explanation, “I was thinking about running for governor at the time.”

Molo challenged OpenAI’s contention that its nonprofit board has control of OpenAI’s for-profit ventures and governance.

In a poignant moment, the plaintiff’s attorney played a brief clip of Altman’s 2024 appearance on a popular podcast, in which he appears to acknowledge former board members’ contentions that he maintained de-facto control over the nonprofit’s board of directors, and impeded their ability to carry out their duties.

Asked on the podcast if he trusted himself with the kind of power that will come with being first to develop AGI, Altman paused and said he was going to offer a standard response about how no one person should have total control over AGI.

“I think you want a robust governance system,” he said, noting a number of issues related to “our board drama.”

“But as many people have observed, although the board had the legal ability to fire me, in practice it didn’t quite work. And that is its own kind of governance failure,” he said.

Under re-direct by OpenAI attorney William Savitt, Altman clarified the outgoing board technically fired him, rehired him, and appointed a new board.

Toxic Management Style

Altman said he was “annoyed” when Musk resigned from the OpenAI board in 2018 to pursue his own AI venture.

“He really had lost confidence in the organization and did not believe we were going to be successful. … And he didn’t want to be associated with something he couldn’t control,” Altman said.

That left questions about funding gaps, competition and, Altman said, whether Musk would “take revenge” on his former cofounders.

“I don’t think Mr. Musk understood how to fund a good research lab,” Altman said, noting he had “demoralized” some of the company’s most key researchers, including by suggesting they be ranked by accomplishments.

Musk’s management style, he said, may work in other industries, but upset the culture in a fledgling, frontier lab where people needed “psychological safety” and long periods of time to develop their work.

Reaction to his departure, Altman said, was mixed. It introduced instability but also provided a “morale boost.”

Challenging Altman's Credibility

Musk’s lawyer, Steven Molo, hammered Altman - citing prior testimony that described a “toxic culture of lying” at OpenAI and statements from former executives who questioned Altman’s trustworthiness. He repeatedly asked whether Altman had misled people in business dealings. Altman responded that he believed he was “an honest and trustworthy business person,” while acknowledging there had been times he had not told the full truth and that he had heard others describe him as a liar.

Molo also highlighted Altman’s personal financial interests, including a roughly $1.7 billion stake in Helion Energy, suggesting potential conflicts during OpenAI’s negotiations. Altman’s own lawyer, William Savitt, focused on Altman’s commitment to the company, including his decision during the 2023 board crisis to return rather than leave for Microsoft. Altman described that choice as being willing to “run back into a burning building to save it.”

Musk did not remain in the courtroom for Altman’s testimony - while closing arguments are expected on Thursday. An advisory jury may begin deliberations shortly afterward, though the judge will ultimately decide any remedies.

The case centers on whether OpenAI’s leaders violated a charitable trust when they created a for-profit subsidiary in 2019 to attract talent and capital. OpenAI maintains that Musk was aware of and supported the restructuring at the time. Musk argues the conversion enriched Altman and Brockman at the expense of the original nonprofit mission.

Brockman’s private journal - awkward...

One bit of awkwardness; During Brockman’s testimony last week, hundreds of pages from his personal journal - kept since 2010 - were introduced as evidence. The entries, written in 2017, captured Brockman’s internal debate over balancing financial pressures with OpenAI’s founding mission and his uncertainty about Musk’s role and intentions. One entry from November 2017, labeled Exhibit 161, was written before and after a key meeting with Musk and has been frequently cited by both sides.

The journal first surfaced in January during the discovery phase of the case. Musk’s legal team obtained the full document and began questioning Brockman about specific passages during his deposition. OpenAI tried to keep large portions sealed, arguing they were cherry-picked and taken out of context, but the judge allowed several entries to be entered as exhibits and even quoted from them in her ruling that let the trial proceed.

The entries that have drawn the most attention were written in 2017, during a particularly turbulent period as OpenAI was wrestling with its future direction and Musk’s role in the company.

One August 2017 entry showed Brockman grappling with the tension between financial realities and the original mission to benefit humanity. A September entry captured his stream-of-consciousness reasoning about the complicated Musk situation - written in the same “chain of thought” style that would later become famous in AI models. The most cited entry, labeled Exhibit 161, was written in November 2017, both before and after a pivotal meeting with Musk. It revealed a founder full of uncertainty, ambition, self-doubt, and a clear desire to do the right thing for the company’s long-term mission.

Brockman testified that he used the journal to process important decisions and that he wrote only for himself. He described the public disclosure as “very painful” but said there was “nothing in there that I’m ashamed of.” He stopped documenting OpenAI matters in the journal in 2023. Musk’s attorneys have referred to the document as a “diary,” while OpenAI’s lawyers have called it a “journal.”

 

Authored by Allen Stein via The Epoch Times,

They are the dinosaurs of the modern age—hulking retired aircraft baking in the Arizona sun, stretching in rows across the desert.

Once America’s defenders of the sky—B-52 Stratofortress and B-1B Lancer bombers, F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters, C-130 Hercules and C-5 Galaxy cargo planes—they now sit idle, preserved for parts or history.

Maintaining and reclaiming these aircraft is no small task at the nation’s only military aircraft “boneyard.”

At Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) oversees that work.

“Most of these planes have been decommissioned, but the parts are still very useful. The parts are all viable,” public relations manager Robert Raine said during an April 21 tour of the 2,600-acre (4-square-mile) AMARG facility in Tucson.

Each aircraft is secured for long-term storage, drained of fluids, stripped of explosive components, and preserved against the slow wear of the desert.

Depending on the aircraft, some could be brought back into service, Raine said.

Since 1964, the maintenance group has served as the sole designated storage, salvage, and disposal center for U.S. military and government organization aircraft.

(Top) A row of military helicopters in storage at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. (Bottom) A C-5 Galaxy cargo plane with a 223-foot wingspan overshadows other military aircraft in storage at the “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The facility employs more than 700 workers and encompasses more than half a million square feet of industrial space.

Here, aircraft come to die, hibernate, or be reborn, their components cleaned, repaired, and repurposed for use in other machines—for conflicts now and those yet to come.

The facility opened shortly after World War II, on April 1, 1946. The site was chosen for its dry desert climate and its ability to store vast quantities of surplus aircraft and military equipment.

Hard caliche soil, along with the absence of earthquakes and extreme weather such as tornadoes and hurricanes, made it an ideal place for long-term storage.

USGS orthophoto of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on May 16, 1992. United States Geological Survey/Public Domain, CC0

The sprawling boneyard is home to 3,488 aircraft, ranging from supersonic fighter jets to massive refueling and cargo planes to strategic bombers—75 aircraft types and 6,700 engines in all.

“AMARG is the last stop for parts” for legacy aircraft, Raine told The Epoch Times. However, it is “not an infinite source.”

When a component is needed, the request typically begins in the global supply system, he said.

If it is not available there, the request moves up the chain to Air Force weapon system program offices, Navy and Marine Corps program management authorities, or Navy Supply Weapon Systems Support.

The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz. Since 1964, the maintenance group has served as the sole designated storage, salvage, and disposal center for U.S. military and government organization aircraft. Overviews created with Apple Maps, satellite imagery courtesy of Digital Globe

Those agencies can then draw from the maintenance group’s vast inventory.

In that system, the boneyard functions as a deep reserve—an industrial fallback where retired aircraft continue to serve, one part at a time.

Raine noted that AMARG does not own any of the aircraft or other assets stored at the facility.

Ownership remains with the original service branches or organizations that delivered them, including U.S. government agencies such as the Coast Guard and Forest Service, allied governments, and private institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution.

The group has roughly 80 customers. But when it comes to procuring and delivering parts, its crews often work on short notice and tight timelines.

A B-1 bomber at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group “boneyard” in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. Each aircraft at the boneyard is secured for long-term storage, drained of fluids, stripped of explosive components, and preserved against the slow wear of the desert. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Each year, AMARG receives an average of 250 to 300 aircraft. Its five core missions are storage, reclamation, regeneration, modification, depot-level maintenance, and disposal.

The planes are inventoried, flushed of fluids, washed, sealed tightly with tape and a special spray material, and stored for years or decades.

“They’ve taken off hazardous materials. They’ve taken off anything that might be classified. They’ve taken off anything that might need to be broken down to demilitarization,” Raine said.

“They’ve drained it to make sure that any residual preservative oil is out of it. They’ve drained the hydraulics out of the landing gear. They’ve depressurized any systems in the aircraft.

(Left, Right) Workers at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group remove the pilot ejection system at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. The facility employs more than 700 workers and encompasses more than half a million square feet of industrial space. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

“It’s basically clean and ready to go.”

The most recent aircraft to arrive was an F/A-18E Hornet in mid-April. The longest-stored aircraft is a Navy T-1A Sea Star, which arrived on April 6, 1970.

Among the rarest are the XC-99 heavy cargo aircraft, a YC-14 military transport aircraft, and a T-46 light jet trainer aircraft.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is the boneyard’s most numerous resident, with more than 350 aircraft. Some have been dismantled and sent to Ukraine for use as training platforms.

It is followed by more than 315 C-130 Hercules aircraft, nearly 300 F-15 Eagle fighters, and 235 A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft.

The second YC-14, one of only two ever built, is stored at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 3, 2012. The aircraft is among the rarest at the boneyard. (w:en:Kitplane01 (talk | contribs), CC-BY-3.0)

In April, the Air Force moved a retired KC-135 Stratotanker out of long-term storage at the base for possible reactivation following losses of aerial refueling aircraft in the Iran conflict, according to FlightGlobal.

In 1948, “when the Soviet Union closed road, rail, and canal traffic into Berlin ... about a quarter of the stored C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft were withdrawn from storage and returned to flying service in support of the Berlin Airlift,” according to the Department of War.

(Top) An F-16 jet fighter is dismantled for parts at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. (Bottom Left) Reusable fuel tanks from an F-16C jet fighter at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. (Bottom Right) An F-16 jet engine ready for delivery at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Aviation History

Some equipment hails from the Vietnam era, including the helicopter used in evacuating the last Marines from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon on April 30, 1975.

Another historic fighter jet kept at the site is a modified F-15 Eagle, nicknamed “Celestial Eagle,” which was used in the only successful satellite destruction by an aircraft-launched missile on Sept. 13, 1985.

Air Force Maj. Wilbert Doug Pearson launched an anti-satellite missile that destroyed a Solwind P78-1 satellite at an altitude of 375 miles.

The airplane got up to about 38,000 feet when Pearson fired the missile at Mach 1.22, Raine said. The weapon used a kinetic kill vehicle rather than an explosive warhead.

“So it just hit it, basically—skin to skin,” he said.

Raine said each aircraft in the boneyard is categorized by type based on condition and utility.

The remains of the helicopter used to evacuate Marines from the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, on April 30, 1975, are stored at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

For example, Type 2000 aircraft are used for parts, while Type 3000 aircraft remain flyable but are rarely used.

Reclamation is the process of removing parts from aircraft to support warfighters or replenish supply inventories.

Regeneration involves returning aircraft to a serviceable condition.

Disposal is the final stage, when an aircraft no longer has a use and is ultimately dismantled and sold as scrap metal.

A number of aircraft with historic value have found their way into the Pima County Air and Space Museum in Tucson.

Among the museum’s decommissioned aircraft are F-16s and older jet fighters, including the SR-71 Blackbird, capable of reaching speeds of Mach 3.

A Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird on display at the Pima County Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., on April 19, 2026. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The longest-serving AV-8B Harrier II+ was added to the museum after accumulating 9,671 flight hours.

“There are different levels of decommission for aircraft,” Kaylei, a museum tour guide who asked to use only her first name, told The Epoch Times.

“Some are more just like waiting in the wings. But if needed, they’re kept in good enough repair to put back into service.”

Cost Avoidance

The Post Block Repair project at the AMARG is one of the Air Force’s major modernization efforts, keeping F-16s operational until they enter service life extension programs, according to the Department of War.

The first aircraft for modification arrived at the boneyard in August 2022.

At AMARG, specialists carry out inspections, repairs, and upgrades to maintain F-16 performance and combat readiness, including avionics improvements to keep pace with evolving air combat.

The Air Force returned two B-1 Lancer bombers to active service after restoring them from the boneyard.

The service also regenerated C-23 Sherpa aircraft for use by the U.S. Forest Service, and transferred B-57 Canberra aircraft to NASA for high-altitude missions, including eclipse observation.

A B-52 Stratofortress is seen in storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. In May 2019, a B-52 nicknamed “Wise Guy” became only the second to be returned to service from the boneyard, according to Air Force Times. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The Department of War notes that work also continues on A-10 Thunderbolt II components, such as engine cowlings, following the completion of the A-10 wing overhaul program in 2024.

In May 2019, a B-52 nicknamed “Wise Guy” became only the second B-52 Stratofortress to return to service from the boneyard, according to Air Force Times. It had entered storage in 2008.

Raine said AMARG not only provides the vital parts needed to keep fleets airborne, but also generates billions of dollars in “cost avoidance.”

Every dollar not spent on new equipment is a taxpayer dollar saved, he said.

From fiscal years 2016 through 2026, AMARG reclaimed 79,358 parts—86 percent of them priority items—totaling $4.37 billion in value.

Fighter jets sit in storage at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

In fiscal year 2025, the facility reclaimed 8,399 parts, 85.3 percent of them priority, worth nearly $495 million.

So far this fiscal year, group crews have salvaged 6,434 parts, 71.8 percent of them priority, valued at $380.6 million.

For high-priority reclamations, the process can take as little as 24 to 48 hours from the time AMARG receives a request, Raine said.

More involved reclamations can take longer. On average, parts requests take seven to 10 working days from the time AMARG receives the request, he said.

In most cases, storage is long-term and requires extensive preparation.

“They’re going to clean all the bugs and gunk and grime off. Then they'll start the taping process. So cardboard first, then barrier paper,” Raine said.

“The tape holds that in place. This seals up openings. These are the openings that are in the back of the aircraft, and they'll wax the canopy to keep the spray seal from getting too adhered to the canopy.”

Boxes of tools used in aircraft parts manufacturing are stacked at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. More than 271,000 pieces of production equipment are stored on-site. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

It’s mostly for temperature control, but it completes the seal, Raine said. Then the aircraft is placed in cold storage.

“So the big guys—like these KC-10s—can be put right out in the desert. When the temperature gets too high or too low, we have to move the plane,” he said.

Cost savings are further driven by more than 271,000 pieces of aircraft production equipment kept on site.

These specialized tools include the original mold for the B-2 Spirit cockpit canopies.

“You can see where the windows went out of the cockpit for the B-2. And it looks kind of weirdly speckled because it originally had aluminum—what they call an armor shield aluminum coating—on it,” he said.

The mold used in fabricating the pilot canopy of a B-2 strategic bomber is one of thousands of original tools at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

Driving through the aircraft tooling storage area is like moving through a small city. But the scale of the boneyard becomes clear once one sees the B-52 Stratofortress bombers in various stages of disassembly and the C-5 Galaxy cargo planes with their 223-foot wingspans.

An F-16 Fighting Falcon sat in pieces as a crew performed “egress,” removing explosive components such as ejection-seat systems.

The sprawling landscape is dotted with outbuildings, among them a 1,000-by-180-foot covered facility with adjustable docks for work on C-130 Hercules aircraft and Northrop’s T-38 Talon jet trainer.

Three hard-sided hangars house 20 docks configured for regeneration, modification, and structural repair work, along with commodity shops and adaptive workspaces.

The rear stabilizer wings from an F-16C jet fighter at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., on April 21, 2026. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The site also includes a dedicated engine test shop, laser systems for paint removal, and two cranes for heavy lifting.

In October, AMARG expects to complete a temporary maintenance shelter with eight docks designed for F-16 aircraft.

Raine said about 70 percent of the boneyard is used for storage, a figure that fluctuates each year as aircraft and parts move in and out.

“By and large, everything flies itself in. As long as stuff goes out, there’s room for aircraft to come in,” he said.