Congress may soon have to decide if it will appropriate money to enable the Department of Energy to pay a multi-million dollar fine to the state of South Carolina for missing a key deadline at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). The facility, which would convert 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel, is part of the overall MOX project – the nation’s current pathway to dispose of the plutonium under an agreement with Russia.
Per a 2003 agreement drawn up by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was in the U.S. House of Representatives at the time, the department was supposed to process at least 1 metric ton of plutonium through the MFFF or remove a ton of plutonium from South Carolina by Jan. 1, 2016. Neither occurred, which means under the agreement the department is supposed to pay South Carolina $1 million a day until one of the actions happens. The 2003 also states fines can only be paid if funding is available.
Graham said last week that he not only supports the agreement he authored, but he wants to see the MOX project move forward despite growing costs. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said last year that it would cost $1 billion a year to adequately fund the MOX project – an amount he does not think Congress will pay. But Graham said Friday that he is not convinced there is another way to meet the nation’s agreement with Russia, despite multiple studies in 2015 that compared the MOX method to other options for plutonium disposition. "I want to push very hard to enforce that statute and try to get an answer for the country and Savannah River Site," Graham said. U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) added that he would support a congressional appropriation and that it might just take a line item shift.
