The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has set a $23.5 billion performance baseline for the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility’s (SRPPF) main processing building, with completion now estimated for December 2038, the agency told Exchange Monitor Monday.
The estimate covers the main processing building at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, where NNSA plans to produce plutonium pits for the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.
“As part of a Critical Decision Reaffirmation (CD-1R) in August 2025, the department re-affirmed SRPPF is the most appropriate solution to meet the nation’s pit production mission need,” an NNSA spokesperson told the Monitor.
The agency’s disclosure follows an Oct. 16 announcement that NNSA had approved Critical Decisions 2 and 3 for SRPPF. The approvals clear the project to proceed with construction, implementation, procurement and fabrication activities.
The newly disclosed $23.5 billion figure is below the $25 billion budgetary placeholder included in the fiscal 2027 budget request, but substantially above the $6.9 billion to $11.1 billion estimate issued when the project received its initial Critical Decision in 2021.
Savannah River Site Watch Director Tom Clements criticized DOE for not initially releasing the new cost estimate, saying the project’s costs have continued to rise while its schedule has slipped, according to the environmentalist group’s Oct. 19 press release. “What we have with the SRS pit plant is yet another complicated and poorly managed DOE construction project that has spun out of control with both the soaring cost and delayed schedule,” Clements said.
SRS Watch also questioned whether DOE’s project-management requirements were followed because a final environmental impact statement has not yet been completed.
Los Alamos Study Group Director Greg Mello said in an emailed release the $23.5 billion baseline is broadly consistent with recent estimates but argued that the delayed completion date could add billions in additional program costs. “The additional program costs at SRS are likely to approach $3 billion for those three years, which in our own tally of construction plus program costs would bring the overall facility acquisition cost at SRS to the $32 B range,” Mello added.
NNSA said SRPPF’s December 2038 completion date represents the approved performance baseline. Pit production would begin after construction and startup activities are completed.
