Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
1/24/2014
Given delays in the construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, the National Nuclear Security Administration has decided to “lay up” the Waste Solidification Building for five years as construction nears completion. WSB is designed to process waste streams from the MOX plant and is set to be completed in Fiscal Year 2015. However, delays in MOX plant construction have pushed back completion of the MOX facility until at least 2019. Given the later MOX start-up, the NNSA has decided to “lay up” the WSB for at least five years following startup testing by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the contractor in charge of WSB construction.
A recently posted Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report details plans for the process. “Balance of plant construction is to be completed, but portable equipment not required for acceptance or startup testing, cementation glovebox windows, fiber optic cables, and capital spares will not be installed nor will additional equipment be purchased. The contractor is to develop the safety basis documents, submit them to NNSA, and maintain their configuration, but NNSA will not formally approve them during this lay-up period,” states the Dec. 27 report.
WSB, MOX Plants Delayed
The startup for WSB in Fiscal Year 2015 included in NNSA’s FY2014 budget request marks a two-year delay from previous estimates, which suggested completion in 2013. Costs for the WSB project also rose last year from a baseline of $344.5 million to $415 million. But the MOX plant has experienced greater change in a provisional baseline, which pushed back the start of operations from 2016 to 2019 and increased project construction costs from $4.9 billion to $7.7 billion. That increase led the NNSA to cut funds and launch an alternatives study for plutonium disposition, which has the potential to further delay or even mothball the project. Meanwhile, MOX construction contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services, the Administration and some lawmakers are in talks for a path forward for MOX.
NNSA to ‘Preserve and Maintain the Facility’
Given the uncertainty surrounding the MOX plant, the NNSA has decided to take the step of “laying up” WSB for five years. “The overriding goal for the Department’s Waste Solidification Building (WSB) project at its Savannah River Site is to deliver a facility that can be approved for radiological operations for plutonium disposition at an appropriate future date, and to preserve and maintain the facility and equipment delivered by the project until the capability is required,” NNSA spokeswoman Keri Fulton said in a written response. “NNSA has sufficient information to determine that the first receipt of liquids from the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility will be a minimum of five years after completion of the WSB project.”
However, Tom Clements of the Sierra Club’s South Carolina Chapter sees it as a result of major issues at the MOX project. “The increased costs with the construction and operation of the facility to handle radioactive waste from the MOX plant are another red flag about just how far the MOX program has run off the budget rails,” Clements said in a statement. “While NNSA will predictably claim that they are shuttering the plutonium waste facility to save money it is actually being done for the opposite reason—that the overall MOX program is simply not financially sustainable.”
