Advocates for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina hope President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming term will put to rest attempts to shut down the troubled project.
The MFFF would be used to honor a 2000 bilateral agreement that requires the U.S. and Russia to each dispose of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium. To complete that mission, the U.S. originally chose the MOX process, which would convert the plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel. But the Obama administration’s fiscal 2017 federal budget proposal would terminate the project and move forward with an alternative to dilute the plutonium using SRS facilities and store the resulting material at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
The Department of Energy says the new plan would save tens of billions of dollars and slice two decades from the schedule to wrap up work. The project’s future overall has been thrown into question by Russia’s suspension last month of the plutonium disposition agreement.
Nonetheless, any effort to cancel the MFFF has run into vehement opposition from South Carolina’s delegation to Congress, where lawmakers have supported continued funding for MOX in fiscal 2017.
The MOX project is currently being funded through a continuing resolution (CR), which sustains fiscal 2016 funding levels for the federal government and expires on Dec. 9. House and Senate energy appropriators proposed funding for MOX, and both chambers’ version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would allow $340 million for construction.
Leacy Burke, a spokeswoman for Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), said the congressman has not had any conversations with Trump or his staff regarding MOX, but hinted that such discussions could be in the offing. “Congressman Wilson looks forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump to support MOX and the Savannah River Site,” she said.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is “focused on securing current funding levels for MOX in the spending bill that must be passed and signed into law by President Obama” by Dec. 9, said spokesman Sean Smith. He added that Scott has made initial contact with high-ranking members in Trump’s staff on the subject, but did not elaborate on the discussions. “The Senator hopes to have substantive talks on the MOX program as soon as possible with whomever is confirmed as Energy Secretary, and in the meantime will continue working with friends and allies in both the House and Senate regarding the future of MOX,” Smith added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) office did not offer a comment on the topic. But during his time in the House, Graham helped author a 2003 agreement between South Carolina and the Department of Energy that called for DOE to meet milestones during plutonium disposition operations at SRS and to pay penalties if those milestones weren’t met. For example, DOE agreed to either process 1 metric ton of the plutonium through the MFFF, or remove a ton of the plutonium from the state, by Jan. 1, 2016. Since neither occurred, the department was supposed to begin paying $1 million a day to the state, capping off annually at $100 million. After waiting a month for payment, state Attorney General Alan Wilson filed suit against the Energy Department, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz.
Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal is not the first time the MOX project has been threatened. In March 2014, the fiscal 2015 proposal called for putting the project in cold standby, meaning construction would freeze while the Energy Department weighed other options to dispose of the plutonium. South Carolina sued DOE just two weeks after the announcement, but eventually dropped the lawsuit after Moniz promised to continue building through the remainder of the fiscal year. Congress eventually reversed the language and appropriated $345 million to continue building the MFFF.
In the Aiken, S.C. region that houses the Savannah River Site, local Trump supporters are also hopeful the MOX project will survive. While Colen Lindell, who co-chaired the Trump campaign in Aiken, has not had the opportunity to speak to Trump about MOX during the campaign, he hopes that will be a topic of discussion in the future. “I plan to try and reach out to let them know more about MOX and its potential,” Lindell said. Referring to the nearly $5 billion already spent on the project, he added, “So much money has been spent on this and I would hate see taxpayer money wasted on this.”
