The Nuclear Regulatory Commission offered another positive assessment of contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services’ work in building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The regulator said in a May 10 letter to contractor President and COO David Del Vecchio that “no violations or deviations were identified” during an inspection conducted from April 10 to May 1.
During this time, the contractor continued construction of principal systems, structures, and components at the plant intended to convert 34 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium into commercial reactor fuel, the letter noted. Meanwhile, the NRC said it closed previously identified violations regarding faulty welded components and inadequate audits of the supplier that provided them.
Last year, the contractor installed roughly 100 ledger assemblies with size deficiencies, in part because it did not verify the validity of documents certifying that the welded ledger assemblies procured from the supplier met requirements. The issue was flagged by the NRC as a quality assurance concern and required repairs. The parts were for floor panels in the Aqueous Polishing Building, a facility meant for purification of weapon-grade material.
The fiscal 2017 omnibus appropriations bill signed into law earlier this month largely maintains funding for work on the MOX plant. However, along with the $335 million for construction and project support, Congress provided $15 million for continued research into DOE’s preferred “dilute and dispose” alternative to the facility.
The White House is expected to release its full fiscal 2018 budget plan next week, which should make clear President Donald Trump’s intentions regarding the future of the project his predecessor pushed to terminate. The Obama administration sought to end construction on the facility in favor of another means of eliminating plutonium – dilution and disposal in an underground repository – that it said would be quicker and cheaper to carry out.
In March, the NRC lauded the contractor for its construction activities and safety performance during 2016. Meanwhile, DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration gave the contractor less than 9 percent of its fiscal 2016 award fee, citing in a performance evaluation “unsatisfactory” cost, schedule, and technical performance – an assessment the contractor has said is politicized.
The stark difference in evaluations from the two government agencies is due to the differences in areas of oversight, NRC spokeswoman Maureen Conley said. While the NNSA is monitoring implementation of its construction contract (including the project schedule), the NRC’s inspections are specifically intended to ensure construction is carried out in accordance with the facility’s license and the regulatory agency’s requirements.
The NRC said in its latest letter that it will conduct routine construction inspections at the MOX plant.
