The Senate will consider its version of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on June 6, but a provision in both the Senate and House versions of the bill calling for continuation of Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility construction is expected to pose problems in light of the Obama administration’s proposal to terminate the program.
The Senate will debate for 30 hours the $602 billion bill and its amendments – 305 have been filed – after the upcoming congressional recess, according to an agreement reached Thursday following Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) objection to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) request for a floor vote Wednesday.
The legislation authorizes $12.9 billion for the NNSA, including $9.2 billion for weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation.
The Senate bill also authorizes $340 million for the Department of Energy (DOE) to continue construction of its Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility, in contrast to the Obama administration’s request of $285 million to shut down the facility and explore an alternative disposal strategy to dilute 34 metric tons of plutonium at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and store it at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
The MOX project is designed to turn surplus plutonium into commercial fuel under a nonproliferation agreement with Russia. MOX is still the official pathway to dispose of the 34 metric tons the administration proposed sending to WIPP.
The bill report called DOE’s failure to update the performance baseline for the MOX facility “particularly troubling,” and said the committee is “concerned about the lack of specificity in the proposed dilute and disposal alternative.” The administration estimated MOX would cost around $50 billion over its lifetime and now argues an alternative approach would save tens of billions of dollars.
The Senate legislation calls on the secretary of energy to arrange with the Army Corps of Engineers an assessment of the “contractual, technical, and managerial risks” posed by the MOX facility and whether the contract for its construction could be changed to a fixed price provision, a fixed price incentive fee provision, or something else “designed to minimize risks to the [DOE] while reducing cost.”
The legislation said that the Army Corps of Engineers would have 30 days to submit its report to DOE, which would then be given 60 days to share with Congress this assessment and determine whether the contractor would agree to a revised contract.
CB&I AREVA MOX Services, the contractor building the facility, did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
The House of Representatives approved its version of the NDAA May 19. The bill would authorize $13.3 billion for the NNSA – including $9.6 billion for weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation – and also directs NNSA to continue MOX construction.
The House legislation was met with a veto threat from the White House, which objected in a statement of administration policy to the “delay in funding the alternative plutonium disposition option and the effort to require continued construction in support of the MOX approach.”
The Senate bill authorizes $56.2 million for weapons dismantlement and disposition, a $12.75 million program reduction that bars accelerated dismantlement unless the president certifies to Congress that his budget request fulfills nuclear modernization funding and schedule commitments. According to the bill report, the authorization level will provide for the dismantlement by fiscal 2022 of weapons retired before fiscal 2009.
Secretary of State John Kerry said last year the U.S. plans to accelerate its rate of weapons dismantlement by 20 percent over the next several years. The NNSA’s fiscal 2017 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan then noted the agency expects to complete dismantlement of all nuclear weapons retired before 2009 a year earlier than originally planned, by fiscal 2021. The NNSA’s fiscal 2017 budget request included $69 million for accelerated dismantlement. Weapons dismantlement and disposition received $52 million in fiscal 2016.
Meanwhile, under the infrastructure and operations category, the Senate legislation offers $824 million for the operation of the facilities at NNSA sites, with all sites receiving amounts equal to those of the administration’s fiscal 2017 budget request.
The Senate passed its $37.5 billion energy appropriations bill for fiscal 2017 May 12, with $31 billion for DOE. The House failed to pass its $37.4 billion appropriations bill this week, with almost all House Democrats voting against passage.
Both Energy and Water bills would provide $12.9 billion for NNSA. The House bill provides $340 million to continue MOX construction, while the Senate version provides $270 million and gives the secretary of energy some flexibility to slow or halt construction of the project.
