Changing the nature of the contract for the Department of Energy’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility would not necessarily help restrain the rising costs for building the plant that will eliminate stocks of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report Wednesday.
The report does not include any recommended action, but rather reveals information gleaned from interviews with officials at organizations including DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and CB&I AREVA MOX Services, the contractor in charge of building the MOX plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The MFFF would convert 34 metric tons of plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel, per the terms of a 2000 U.S.-Russian arms control agreement.
When construction began in 2007, the Energy Department estimated it would cost $4.6 billion to build the facility, with completion slated for September 2016. Now, the department believes it will cost $17.2 billion – including the $5 billion already spent – with completion slated for 2048.
In the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress advised DOE to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a report assessing the MOX contract. The Corps, in February, advised DOE to convert the construction portion of the contract from a cost-reimbursed deal to a fixed-price incentive firm contract. The change would “reduce the level of risk to the government from the level currently experienced under the existing contract,” the Army Corps wrote. And if the two sides couldn’t agree to change the contract, the Army report said DOE should cancel the deal.
But, according to the GAO report, the change would not be assured of containing expenses. “We reviewed their reports and found that converting the contract would limit the government’s risk of future cost increases but would take time and could add some costs,” the GAO said.
