South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday she still expects the Department of Energy to pony up $100 million for missing a plutonium disposition milestone at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). South Carolina sued the federal government on Feb. 9 because DOE had failed for more than a month to acknowledge missing milestones at the MFFF, a key facility in the nation’s MOX project. The United States would use the facility to carry out its part of a deal with Russia under which each nation must dispose of 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium. The MOX method would convert the plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel.
In a separate agreement made between the federal government and the Palmetto State, DOE agreed to either process 1 metric ton of the plutonium through the MFFF, or remove a ton of the plutonium from the state, by Jan. 1, 2016. Since neither occurred, the department was supposed to begin paying $1 million a day to the state, per the 2003 agreement. Haley on Feb. 9 made good on her threat to have the state sue for the money. In an email Tuesday, she re-emphasized her skepticism in dealing with the federal government because “the Department of Energy has not lived up to promises made in the past. We will not back down from our lawsuit until the DOE pays the $1 million a day fine they are required to under federal law.”
The 2003 agreement puts a $100 million cap on the $1 million a day payout. The 2016 calendar shows that April 9 is the 100th day of the year, but it is unclear if the agreement refers to consecutive days or business days. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Tuesday said it would not comment on ongoing litigation.
The state lawsuit arrived on the same day as President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget request, which called for shuttering MOX due to cost overruns and schedule delays. Initially projected to cost $17 billion, the Energy Department believes the program will now cost $51 billion over its lifetime, including the $5 billion already spent. The federal government wants to move forward with a downblending alternative that would dilute of the plutonium using H Canyon and other facilities at SRS and send the resulting material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M.
