On Friday, a U.S. attorney representing the National Nuclear Security Administration in a contractor lawsuit appealed a court decision to let some 20 MOX Services employees retain access to vital project information about cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina.
The federal government had not filed its appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
On April 16, Judge Thomas Wheeler of U.S. Court of Federal Claims approved MOX Services request for a protective order that allows not fewer than 20 company employees to “retain all credentials that are necessary to physically access MOX Project areas” at the DOE’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.
MOX Services said it needs a presence at the site to “retain administrative control rights and full authority to grant access rights to the MOXnet, which encompasses various business systems, applications and documents created and maintained by Plaintiff to perform the contract,” according to the order.
The court sealed the government’s arguments against the motion.
MOX Services sued NNSA in the Court of Federal Claims in 2016 for some $200 million in damages and withheld fees, arguing the government caused the very delays it later cited as reason for cancelling the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). MOX Services had laid off about 1,000 of its 1,500 employees, as of April.
