Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
9/4/2015
Members of the South Carolina congressional delegation late last month requested that the Department of Energy provide them with copies of all agency communications, guidelines, and instructions to The Aerospace Corp. for preparation of a report on plutonium disposition options the company completed in April.
“In order for us to better understand the methodology that the Aerospace Corporation used to complete its analysis, we ask for your cooperation in providing us with any and all complete, unredacted versions of Department of Energy communications, guidelines, memoranda, directives, and constraints, both in writing and in email form, as well as a summary of those conveyed orally, to the Aerospace Corporation in reference to the ‘Plutonium Disposition Study Options Independent Assessment Phase 1 Report,’” according to the letter obtained by NS&D Monitor this week from the lawmakers to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
The report published by Aerospace, which is a federally funded research and development center specializing in national security space programs, estimated that disposing of 34 metric tons of U.S. weapon-grade plutonium at the in-construction Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina would cost $47.5 billion over its life cycle, while downblending the material instead would cost $17.2 billion. The United States’ 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) with Russia dictates disposal of the plutonium through the MOX approach. Any other disposal method would require an amendment to the PMDA or a new agreement. MOX contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services estimates the MOX plant as approximately 70 percent complete. With construction and life-cycle costs rising, the administration tried to put the project in cold standby last year, but Congress blocked the move, requiring construction to continue.
Written and signed by Rep. Joe Wilson (R), the Aug. 21 letter was also signed by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott and Republican Reps. Mick Mulvaney, Jeff Duncan, Tom Rice, and Trey Gowdy. As of Tuesday, Wilson had not received a response from DOE, but his office expects it soon, according to reports.
The lawmakers accused DOE of gratuitously influencing and directing the Aerospace study, and said they were concerned that the alleged “interference” hampered the company’s ability to conduct an objective assessment. “This guidance from the Department of Energy not only skewed the findings, which clearly appear to favor one disposal option, but also violates congressional intent,” Wilson wrote. The one-page letter did not offer any specific example of this interference, but stakeholders have questioned the credibility of the report by Aerospace, citing concerns about the ability of the firm—which mainly specializes in national security space studies—to evaluate a nuclear project.
The letter was sent the same day that former New Mexico Governor and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in support of MOX. Richardson urged Reid to push DOE to move forward with the embattled program. Richardson accused DOE of running an “aggressive campaign against MOX,” and called the Aerospace report a “made-to-order” study.
DOE and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration did not respond to requests for comment on the letter.
