Responding to questions from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday, National Nuclear Security Administration chief Neile Miller said she could not think of another way to keep the plutonium disposition program with Russia on schedule other than the Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Plant project at the Savannah River Site, which the Administration has put on hold due to cost concerns. “One thing I will not accept is breaking the agreement with the Russians and coming up with an alternative that is going to cost more and take longer,” Graham said. “Can you think of any other way to do this that will keep this program on schedule other than MOX?” Miller replied, “I cannot. But I am not a technical person.” Graham responded: “They have studied this since 1995. Vitrification is the only other alternative. You’d have to build a new facility and it would cost a lot more … I think your concerns about cost overruns are correct. In the budget, you stop out-year construction and that is an absolute non-starter with me and the program. We’ve got to get this stuff off the market and we can’t keep playing games with the people of South Carolina and Georgia.”
Graham has placed a hold on the nomination of Ernest Moniz as Secretary of Energy as he seeks resolution of the MOX concerns. Yesterday, he reiterated that he is willing to work with the Administration to lower costs on the facility, which according to the latest estimates could cost as much as $8 billion, but that the MOX facility was the only solution to meeting the plutonium disposition agreement between the United States and Russia.
