SENATE NOW SET TO CONSIDER MONIZ NOMINATION AS DOE SEC.

Sen. Graham Drops Hold Tied to Concerns Over MOX Plans

Kenneth Fletcher
GHG Monitor
5/10/13

The nomination of Ernest Moniz to serve as the next Secretary of Energy is now set to be considered by the full Senate, after Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced late this week that an agreement has been reached to allow a vote to proceed.  The agreement appears to have resulted in Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) dropping the hold he had placed on Moniz’s nomination approximately two weeks ago because of concerns over the Department of Energy’s plans to slow down construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and assess alternatives for the project. The details of any agreement with Graham regarding MOX are not clear at this point, and Graham’s office could not be reached for comment late this week. Reid announced that a unanimous consent-time agreement was reached for a vote on Moniz’s nomination, but a date for debate and a vote has not yet been set. Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman has been leading the Department as acting Secretary since the departure of former DOE Secretary Steven Chu in late April.

Graham placed a hold on Moniz’s nomination soon after it cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a near-unanimous vote last month. The MOX plant is being built as part of an agreement with Russia to disposition 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium by converting it into fuel that can be used in commercial nuclear reactors. While the facility is more than 60 percent complete, in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget request DOE announced it would seek to cut funding, slow down construction and examine alternative ways to disposition surplus plutonium. This week, Graham outlined his goals to reporters for the hold. “My concern is that we’re stopping the program to study alternatives that have no ability to produce results and will cost far more than continuing the program. The administration is right to want to lower costs of the MOX program. They’re wrong to want to study and alternative, and I fear that once you do the study the thing will be abandoned,” Graham said, according to The Hill.