The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) is only 27 percent complete and will cost $17.2 billion, including the $5 billion already spent, according to a recent cost estimate from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration discussed the estimate Thursday during a media briefing and tour of the facility, located at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. Weapons Complex Monitor did not attend the tour but followed up with the NNSA for comment.
While the headline numbers have been made public, the Army Corps’ full cost assessment report has not been released for open consumption, and it is unclear if it will be.
The MFFF is designed to carry out the terms of a U.S.-Russia agreement that requires each nation to dispose of 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium — in total, enough to power more than 17,000 nuclear weapons. The facility would convert the material into commercial nuclear fuel, but it has suffered cost overruns since its $5 billion projected price tag when construction began in 2007.
The Obama administration instead wants to move forward with a downblending alternative that would dilute the plutonium at SRS and send it to another troubled facility — the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The transuranic waste storage facility has been shut down since February 2014 due to two separate incidents — a salt haul truck fire on Feb. 5 and the release of a small amount of radiation on Feb. 14. The Department of Energy says it intends to reopen the facility in December.
Thom Metzger, NNSA director of public affairs, also noted work at Savannah River to qualify K-Area operators for plutonium downblending operations. Downblending of a 6-metric-ton cache of plutonium not covered under the U.S.-Russian agreement is sue to start by the end of September.
According to DOE, the entire life-cycle cost of downblending the 34 metric tons is $17 billion, compared to a $51 billion estimate for MOX that includes $17 billion for the MFFF construction alone. Once construction is completed, the rest of the money would be used for the actual conversion of the plutonium into nuclear fuel using the MFFF, and for other facilities at SRS to treat the waste generated from plutonium conversion.
The NNSA says construction of the MFFF will cost another $12 billion to complete, with an estimated finishing date of 2049, assuming $350 million in funding per year. The project received $345 million for fiscal 2015 and $340 million for fiscal 2016.
CB&I AREVA MOX Services, the contractor for the facility, has dismissed similar cost estimates in the past. But Metzger said by email Thursday,“Even using MOX Services’ own cost estimate of $9.9B (at $350M/year), the facility is only 49 percent compete, with an estimated completion on date of 2029.”
CB&I AREVA MOX Services declined to comment for this article. The contractor said earlier this year the MFFF was 70 percent complete, based on physical construction rather than the cost to complete building.
Cost estimates from the federal government continue to draw criticism from MOX supporters, including Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Both have toured the MFFF multiple times, Wilson most recently in January. He said Thursday by email that other DOE projects are not evaluated using life-cycle costs. “After visiting MOX several times over the last few years, it is clear that the contractors have made significant progress—the facility is over 70 percent complete,” Wilson wrote. “Despite constantly receiving inflated cost-estimates from opponents that use contrived data, measurable progress on the MOX facility is clear and it is in the interest of the American people to complete it.”
Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham, wrote Thursday that DOE’s plan has not been fully vetted and that the cost estimates cannot be trusted. “Sen. Graham continues to pursue all the tools at his disposal to ensure that construction of the MOX program proceeds until all contingencies are favorably resolved.”
Despite the federal government’s intent to terminate the facility, both the U.S. House and Senate were seeking $340 million in approved funding for the project in their respective versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to continue construction of the SRS facility before entering conference committee. The House passed its version of the NNDA in May and the Senate in June. Wilson said last week that conference committee is expected to end its work soon.
