Sen. Feinstein Calls MOX Project ‘Apex of Problems’
Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
5/22/2015
While construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility is supported at a $345 million funding level in the Senate’s version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations legislation that was reported out of committee this week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called the project the “apex of problems.” The funding level in the bill matches the Department of Energy’s budget request, as well as the level provided by the House in its version of the F16 energy spending bill. However, Feinstein this week referenced a recent report by Aerospace Corp. that found that the funding level would not be sufficient to complete the project. “We have already spent $4.5 billion on this project, and I don’t believe we can afford to proceed,” Feinstein said at a Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee markup hearing on the bill. “The $345 million is almost optimizing the amount of money to be wasted. At this annual level the project will never be completed.”
The Aerospace report was released recently after being requested by Congressional appropriators. It found that the total lifecycle cost for the MOX option stands at $47.5 billion if the project is funded at $500 million per year, which has been challenged by MOX supporters who say the total cost of the project it should be far lower. If MOX is funded at $375 million per year, close to current levels, the total cost jumps to about $110 billion and the completion date stretches 100 years into the future to 2115, according to the Aerospace report. Total cost for downblending the plutonium for disposal would cost about $17.2 billion, the report states.
Feinstein: ‘Perhaps this Can Be the Final Year’
Citing the high level of funding suggested in the Aerospace report, Feinstein said the downblending option should be considered. “These funding levels will quickly crowd out other priorities in the defense portion of the bill, including nuclear nonproliferation activities, environmental cleanup and rehabilitating our nuclear weapons infrastructure,” she said. She added later, “It is my understanding we will have dilution alternative ahead of us, so perhaps this can be the final year and we can take a look at the option that can save us the $30 billion.”
Another ‘Red Team Review’
The Senate bill includes language that would require the National Nuclear Security Administration to perform a “red team review” on the MOX project to look ways to cut costs. The review would model a similar assessment performed after cost increases at the NNSA’s Uranium Processing Facility. The red team review of the MOX project “should be completed in sufficient time to inform the fiscal year 2017 budget request,” according to report language accompanying the bill.
