The newly redesigned Uranium Processing Facility might be in jeopardy of breaching its $6.5 billion cost cap, according to the report accompanying the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations Act released yesterday. House appropriators fully funded the Administration’s $430 million request on UPF, but it said an internal peer review conducted by the National Nuclear Security Administration “indicated a potential for cost growth above the $6,500,000,000 cost target.” The NNSA scaled back the project last year in the face of growing costs, settling on a modular approach to replacing the Y-12 National Security Complex’s aging Building 9212. The NNSA did not respond to a request for comment about the internal peer review.
However, House appropriators remain worried about the new approach. “The Committee is concerned that the NNSA has not fully addressed the root causes of its past project management failures for major construction projects,” the appropriators said. “Few details have been solidified on the UPF project and the NNSA’s inability to lay out any of its plans in its budget request is indicative of the challenges that the NNSA faces in delivering this facility.” In their report, the appropriators said $140.8 million for site preparation work would not be available until the NNSA submits to Congress an “independently-verified cost estimate for the entire scope of the project that details the cost and schedule targets for each planned subproject.”