Bills Boost MOX Funding and Direct Continued Construction

The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee spending bill for Fiscal Year 2015 would boost Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility construction funding to $400 million and would prevent funds from being used for “cold standby” of the project, panel Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said yesterday following a markup of the bill. Citing rising costs for the project the Department of Energy slashed funding to $196 million in its FY 2015 request and aims to put the plant into cold standby while assessing alternatives for plutonium disposition, a move that has been opposed by many lawmakers. “The idea that MOX is overrunning in cost is very real to me and I think we can control costs but there is no viable alternative,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said at the markup. “We’re 60 percent—50 percent, depending on who you talk to—through the program, and now is not the time to stop and look for an idea that has no hope of being realized.” He added, “We have some time now to figure out how to make it more cost effective.”

MOX is currently the pathway for 34 metric tons of surplus weapons grade plutonium that must be dispositioned under an agreement with Russia. “Now is not the time to break an agreement with Russia over disposing of the weapons material,” Graham said. “They have 34 metric tons of nuclear weapons material that they’re bound by this agreement to dispose of. God knows we don’t want any more material floating around the world and if the Russians are willing to get rid of some of their stockpile we should take them up on it.” Overall, the panel provided $1.98 billion for the NNSA’s nonproliferation account, $423 million more than the Administration’s $1.55 billion request. In addition to increasing funding for MOX, the panel said the increase will go toward speeding up efforts to secure vulnerable nuclear materials around the world and invest in new nuclear detection technologies.

In the House, the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee bill would provide $345 million for MOX, or $149 million above DOE’s budget request. That funding would be used to “sustain the current pace of construction” and “prohibits the use of MOX funding to place the project in cold standby,” according to report language accompanying the legislation. The panel also criticized DOE’s study of alternatives for plutonium disposition, and directed that an independent lifecycle cost estimate for MOX and downblending of plutonium be completed. “There is no value to continuing to analyze alternatives that are not feasible and do not save costs. Rather, establishing a protracted deadline for making a decision drives up costs, wastes additional taxpayer funds, and delays resolution of project management issues that must be addressed no matter which alternative is selected,” the report states.