Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
9/26/2014
Though the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility was slated to go into “cold standby” at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2015 next week, the immediate path forward for the project remains unclear and the National Nuclear Security Administration has not provided word on the future of the project. Contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services has not received any direction on how to proceed, an industry official told NS&D Monitor this week. Construction can continue at the current pace with no layoffs under the $343.5 million annual funding level included in the Continuing Resolution passed by Congress earlier this month, set to run through mid-December. In recent weeks NNSA officials have declined to comment on the status of the project, and this week NNSA did not respond to a request for comment on the MOX project.
The Obama Administration announced its decision to place the facility in cold standby as part of its FY 2015 budget request released earlier this year, citing the rising costs it would take to complete construction of the project and subsequently run the facility. At the same time, it said it would seek less expensive options to dispose of 34 metric tons of plutonium under an agreement with Russia that are currently slated to be processed in the MOX facility. The Administration requested $221 million for the project in FY 2015, a significant cut from the current funding level. The decision came after the Department launched a study of plutonium disposition alternatives last year led by DOE senior advisor John MacWilliams that revealed that estimated construction costs for the facility had risen to $10 billion, up from a previous estimate of $7.7 billion and an earlier baseline of $4.86 billion.
However, members of South Carolina’s Congressional delegation have since fought hard for continued progress on MOX. Additionally, given that the Administration moved to immediately suspend construction of MOX, South Carolina sued DOE for taking the action without the approval of Congress. As a result, DOE pushed back cold standby start to the beginning of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1. Meanwhile, the approved CR would allow the NNSA to spend at current levels while Congress works on a spending bill to cover the remainder of the fiscal year. MOX is likely to see a boost above the NNSA request in that bill. The House version of the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations Act included $345 million for the project, while Senate appropriators have included $400 million to keep construction going.
In July, Liz Sherwood-Randall, recently confirmed as Deputy Secretary of Energy, appeared to soften the Administration’s stance on the project, called MOX the Obama Administration’s “preferred solution” for plutonium disposition before squarely placing the onus for funding the project on Congress. “We should not take any steps that diminish the likelihood of Russia fulfilling its obligation,” Sherwood-Randall, the White House’s former arms control czar, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a hearing on her nomination. “We have an obligation to fulfill, and we as a nation have a responsibility to figure out how to get it done in an affordable manner.”
