CB&I AREVA MOX Services provided “misleading” information in determining how much construction of the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) will cost, and how long it will take to build the plant, according to an updated project baseline report released Friday by the Energy Department’s Office of Project Management Oversight and Assessments. The report, which has already received criticism from MOX supporters, denounces the contractor’s $9.99 billion construction cost estimate, including the $5 billion already spent. The estimate contradicts the $17 billion construction estimate DOE reported on Sept. 8.
The MFFF would be used to convert 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium into commercial reactor fuel under a U.S.-Russian nonproliferation agreement. But the Obama administration’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal seeks to terminate the project in lieu of a downblending alternative that would dilute the plutonium at SRS using inhibitor materials and send the final product to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., for final storage. The Energy Department believes the entire downblending project will only cost $17 billion, compared to $51 billion to complete the MOX project.
In the baseline document, DOE compares its estimates to build the MFFF to recent funding and timetable estimates provided by CB&I AREVA MOX Services. With $350 million in funding each year, CB&I AREVA MOX Services believes it would wrap up construction by 2029, compared to DOE’s projection of 2048. The department said the difference of opinion arises because the contractor is downplaying how much the cost could escalate. For example, DOE’s projection assumes the cost will escalate by about $5 billion during the life cycle of construction, compared to CB&I AREVA MOX Services’ projection of about $374 million. According to DOE, an annual appropriation of $350 million, along with cost escalation, will push the completion schedule back to 2048.
DOE also said CB&I AREVA MOX Services has been providing a questionable construction completion percentage. The contractor uses actual cost data to determine the MFFF completion rate. Under that system, the facility is 61 percent complete, according to DOE. “This percentage is misleading for much of the mechanical piping, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems due to the fact that much of the material was procured prior to completion of design and is stored on site awaiting installation,” DOE wrote.
Once the figures are adjusted to reflect piping, installation, and the other factors, DOE said the completion rate should equal out to 48 percent. Meanwhile, DOE numbers add up to a much lower completion rate of 28 percent.
CB&I corporate communications did not respond to a request for comment.