The Energy Department will shed more light next week on the role industry is playing in crafting an updated cost and schedule estimate for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) under construction at the agency’s Savannah River Site, an agency spokesperson said Thursday.
The Senate Armed Services Committee requested an update on the latest estimates for the multibillion-dollar facility — which the White House wants to close down, despite the facility’s prominent role in a major U.S. arms-reduction pact with Russia – in a May 6 letter, a copy of which was obtained by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
“To better inform our oversight activities, we request that you provide to us an update on the roles of DOE, the MFFF contractor, and other parties on the development of the updated cost and schedule information,” reads a letter from Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.): respectively, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
An NNSA spokesperson wrote in a Thursday email “the Department will comply with the committee’s request for response by May 31.”
As for the cost estimate itself, it was not clear when the Senate might receive that. Lawmakers have long sought a new cost estimate for MFFF, and several bills pending in Congress could make it easier for DOE to shut down the facility, provided the agency first produces a cost estimate that persuades lawmakers such a course of action would be reasonable.
The White House proposed cancelling MFFF as part of the 2017 budget request it revealed in February. The facility, which even by the most conservative public estimates is about 50 percent complete, is designed to dilute some 34 metric-tons of weapons-grade plutonium into fuel suitable for commercial nuclear reactors.
The White House maintains it would be cheaper to instead dilute the plutonium, mix it with an inert solid, and permanently dispose of the material in DOE’s underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
Congress has so far not gone along with the White House’s request to cancel MFFF.
Meanwhile, studies commissioned by MFFF prime contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services say staying the course would be far cheaper and safer.
A May 5 report by Greensboro, Ga.-based High Bridge Associates — the consulting firm repeatedly hired by CB&I AREVA MOX Services — said finishing the plant and processing surplus plutonium there would cost about $20 million and take fewer than 30 years. DOE says it would cost $45 billion and take more than 30 years.
CB&I AREVA MOX Services did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
