Senate appropriators on Thursday passed their fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, including funding for the controversial mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. But they have asked the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing about the MOX approach that President Barack Obama nixed in his latest budget request in order to guide the Appropriations Committee on a path forward for the program.
Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday during the panel’s markup of the funding bill that he recognized “that the authorizing committee for the MOX project is the Armed Services Committee,” and that it is not the Appropriations Committee’s role “to decide whether to authorize the project or to change its mission.”
“That ball is now in the Armed [Services] Committee court for a while,” Alexander said, noting that this panel will “give us instructions about how we are to proceed in the appropriations process.” The Senate Armed Services Committee has not yet set a date for the hearing.
The Senate version of the bill, to be considered next by the full upper chamber, provides the same overall amount of funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration as the House energy and water legislation released Tuesday. Both bills meet the administration’s $12.9 billion funding request for the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch.
The House bill forcefully opposes the Department of Energy’s plan to cancel the project intended to turn 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium into commercial fuel under a nonproliferation agreement with Russia. It provides $340 million for the construction of the MOX facility, despite the president’s proposal to cancel the program and put $285 million toward an alternative dilution and disposal approach. The Obama administration says it can save years of work and tens of billions of dollars by replacing the MOX program, which it estimates will cost more than $50 billion over its lifetime.
The Senate bill provides $270 million for the MOX project but, in a nod to potential changes to the plutonium disposition program, gives Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz reprogramming authority for the funding. According to the bill report, reprogramming for construction projects could include “the reallocation of funds from one construction project identified in the agency’s budget justification to another project or a significant change in the scope of an approved project.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Wednesday the decision to punt the MOX deliberations to the Armed Services Committee was made earlier in the day at a “very useful” meeting that included Moniz and several members of Congress. “My thinking is that the $270 million that we provide in this budget [for MOX] should contain a resolution; in other words, by the end of this next year we should be able to figure a solid recourse,” Feinstein said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has been a particularly vocal critic of the proposal to terminate the MOX project. “If you think you’re going to cancel the MOX program and not have a viable path forward, then you’re going to be in for a rude awakening, unless the Congress wants to abandon the agreement with the Russians,” he said Wednesday. “How do the Russians feel about that?” he challenged, citing reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s withdrawal from the latest Nuclear Security Summit stemmed at least in part from his view that the U.S. broke the agreement by unilaterally proposing a change in the plutonium disposition method.
Graham also said that he spoke with New Mexico’s two senators about the proposed MOX alternative in which the downblended plutonium would be stored at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in their state, and “they didn’t feel too excited about that right now.” He later told reporters that those pushing to cancel MOX “haven’t talked to New Mexico,” whose officials are “not ready for making a change of disposition.”
“Other than these few details, everything is on track,” he quipped. Commenting on the upcoming Armed Services Committee hearing on MOX, he said, “I am going to lay into these guys like Sherman going through Georgia.”
“I want to thank the committee for rejecting the idea of terminating the program,” Graham said. “I think you were wise enough to know that there’s a lot to be done before you terminate this program.”
The House subcommittee moved its version of the appropriations bill to the full committee for consideration, which is expected next week. The Senate bill is expected to go to the floor for consideration next week.
