House Appropriators yesterday criticized the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plans to slow down construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and study alternatives for plutonium disposition in its version of the FY 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. The NNSA cut funding for plant construction in its Fiscal Year 2014 budget to $320 million, stating that due to rising costs it will examine other options. While the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee matched the NNSA’s request in its bill report released yesterday ahead of today’s full committee markup, it stated that NNSA should instead reform its management of the project and conduct an independent cost estimate. “The NNSA has not described any alternatives which have not already been exhaustively considered or which are likely to result in any substantial cost savings to justify this pause,” the report states. It adds, “An extended study would instead further drive up the overall cost of the project by delaying ongoing construction and diverting attention from what should be a concerted high-priority effort to improve the project’s management and to limit further cost escalation.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post’s Fact Checker has debunked some of the arguments in a TV ad critical of the MOX project sponsored by Friends of the Earth. The analysis centered on the ad’s claims that the project is “sending money overseas” because it is being constructed by contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services, which is partially owned by French nuclear firm AREVA. “The notion the plant is ‘run’ by a French company, or that billions of taxpayer dollars are flowing overseas, is a fallacy and highly misleading, especially when compared to significant sums of money spent in the United States, even if it turns out to be a boondoggle,” the Fact checker analysis states, granting it “four Pinocchios” for inaccuracy.