WASHINGTON — Replacing an under-construction plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina will be billions of dollars cheaper than finishing it, even after accounting for transportation and storage costs associated with a proposed alternative, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) told lawmakers here Tuesday.
The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to cancel the the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) and instead treat the plutonium via another means at the Savannah River Site and ship it for burial deep underground in New Mexico. Last week, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the House’s top energy appropriator, said he feared DOE had not properly accounted for the extra transportation expenses, among others, associated with the “dilute and dispose” approach.
On Tuesday, NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty said DOE would account for those costs, and that dilute and dispose will still “cost billions less” than the MFFF.
The Department of Energy (DOE) must eliminate 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium under an arms control pact with Russia that was finalized in 2010. The plutonium would be turned into commercial reactor fuel at the MOX plant, which CB&I AREVA MOX Services is building under a contract awarded in 1999.
Congress has refused to support DOE’s plan to halt the project, which is over budget and behind schedule, but last year said the agency could have its way if it could prove dilute and dispose could process the plutonium for at least half the cost of doing the work in the MFFF.
CB&I AREVA MOX Services — which has sued DOE for allegedly mismanaging MFFF — estimates it will take about $10 billion to finish the facility by 2029. That includes $5 billion DOE has already spent on the plant. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said last week the MFFF would not be finished until 2048 and cost more than $17 billion.
On Tuesday, Simpson remained wary about whether DOE would turn over the comprehensive cost estimate, but he also said he was willing to be convinced.
“If someone can show that something’s going to cost 50 percent less, I’m not going to jump and oppose it,” Simpson told Gordon-Hagerty.
