House Approves Version This Week With No Funding Increase for Project
Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
5/23/2014
The beleaguered Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project would see a significant boost in authorized funding for Fiscal Year 2015 under the Senate version of the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act, reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee late this week. Citing ballooning costs, the Department of Energy’s FY 2015 budget request aimed to suspend construction of the MOX facility and put the project into “cold standby,” while seeking a total of $196 million for the project. The Senate version of the defense policy bill, though, would authorize a funding level of $341 million for the project, and says the funding is intended for continued construction, according to information released this week by the office of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-.S.C.), a staunch MOX supporters. “The Obama Administration’s decision to suspend construction on the MOX facility is both ill-conceived and dangerous,” Graham said in a statement. “The Senate Armed Services Committee took the first step in rejecting the Obama Administration’s reckless efforts to put MOX in ‘cold standby.’”
Meanwhile, the full House this week passed its version of the defense authorization bill that included no additional authorized funding for MOX. While the bill had previously included an authorized increase of about $120 million, that boost was stripped during debate in the House Armed Services Committee earlier this month, and MOX advocates made no move this week to restore it on the House floor. When asked to comment on the legislation, MOX supporter Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) said at a House Cleanup Caucus briefing on the Savannah River Site this week: “As we approach MOX, it needs to be based on facts. It’s really been startling to me to see statements made that haven’t been correct, in particular that there are five alternatives. As it turns out, they aren’t real if you’re concerned about costs and that’s the basis for your concern.” He added: “I just want what’s best for the American people, and I believe that the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility is best.”
Graham: Scrapping MOX ‘Non-Starter’
The Department of Energy is currently exploring alternatives for plutonium disposition in order to meet an agreement with Russia if the MOX plant is not completed, and has made a public a study that evaluated options such as vitrification or downblending and direct disposal. Graham this week also criticized the potential alternatives. “The Obama Administration refuses to face the reality there is no viable alternative to MOX. In 2000 we first signed an agreement with the Russians where we identified the MOX program as the disposition path for the 34 metric tons of weapons grade plutonium held by the U.S. in excess of our defense needs. The Russians have agreed to reduce their plutonium stockpile by the same amount. Now is not the time to change course on the MOX program and try to renegotiate anything with the Russians,” he said. “We are working in a collaborative way to reduce the life cycle cost of the MOX program. It is possible to reduce costs, but scrapping the MOX program is a non-starter.”
House Bill Bars Study of Pu Shipments to Wash.
During the floor debate on the House version of the defense authorization bill, Rep. Doc Hastings was successful in amending the measure to prohibit DOE from studying options that could bring additional plutonium to Washington state. DOE’s alternatives study considered immobilization of plutonium at the Waste Treatment Plant under construction at the Hanford site. “Completing MOX is in the best interest of Hanford cleanup, but at a minimum zero time or money should be wasted studying options that would be harmful to cleanup progress here,” Hastings said in a statement. “DOE just finished shipping plutonium from Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) to South Carolina 5 years ago—studies that involve shipping it (and more) back here make no sense and would only divert focus from real cleanup work. As with Yucca Mountain, this is another example of this Administration creating a problem when a solution already exists. Whether it’s an irresponsible budget request for [Hanford] or a continued failure to provide details about a path forward for the Waste Treatment Plant, the Department has plenty of real challenges without producing reports on unworkable alternatives to MOX.”
MOX Study Amendment Not Taken Up
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) was unsuccessful, though, in his attempt to amend the House bill to require the Department of Energy to “issue a solicitation for offers from contractors to dispose of surplus weapons plutonium to meet the plutonium disposition goals of the United States,” which would work in conjunction with national labs. The amendment was not made in order after it was submitted to the House Rules Committee. A similar amendment lost a voice vote in the committee markup of the bill.
