The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility being built in South Carolina is on its way to becoming a sticking point between the House and Senate as they work toward settling on a single energy and water funding bill for fiscal 2018. House appropriators remain intent on saving the controversial Department of Energy project, while their Senate counterparts appear largely to have given up on it.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved by a 30-1 vote its version of the appropriations legislation, which provides $31.5 billion for the Energy Department, $718 million above DOE’s current funding level and $3.6 billion more than the administration’s budget request.
Of that, $13.7 billion would go toward the National Nuclear Security Administration – a $747 million increase from the current level but slightly less than the agency’s $13.9 billion budget request.
This includes $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation, $31 million below its current level but $10 million above the budget request. Of that, $270 million would fund termination of the MOX project at DOE’s Savannah River Site; according to bill language, “No funds are provided to continue construction” of the facility, which is being built to fulfill the U.S. obligation under a nonproliferation agreement with Russia to dispose of 34 metric tons of excess nuclear weapon-usable plutonium.
The Obama and Trump administrations both proposed canceling MOX in favor of an alternative dilution and disposal method they said would save tens of billions of dollars and years of work. The DOE has projected the MOX method would cost $51 billion over its lifetime, while the alternative approach would cost $17 billion.
The Energy Department requested $270 million in fiscal 2018 to terminate the project, along with $9 million to research the alternative approach.
Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Committee last week approved its own version of the spending bill, which provides $340 million for construction of the facility. The House bill would not allow a change in method until the NNSA submits a proposal outlining the legislative and regulatory changes required for the new approach, as well as independently verified cost and schedule estimates.
Both the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act also direct continued construction of the facility.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a vocal proponent of the home-state project, Thursday during the Senate Appropriations Committee markup offered and withdrew an amendment reversing the bill’s MOX language that he said he would save for Senate floor debate.
“This issue’s not going to go away,” Graham said, cautioning the committee against breaking its commitment to build MOX because it would be “one of the most serious mistakes in the history of nonproliferation.”
Graham also said he would work with the MOX project contractor and the Energy Department to “try to find a way to get this project cheaper.” He was the only committee member to vote against the bill.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a longtime MOX critic, responded that “endless discussions have been held with the contractor and the Department of Energy, and they’re all the same.”
“We don’t have the money to meet our nuclear modernization needs and fund MOX,” Feinstein said.
The Senate energy and water funding bill also provides $10 billion for NNSA nuclear weapons activities, a $755 million increase from the current level but $239.3 million below the budget request. That account provides $3.9 billion for directed stockpile work, including $1.7 billion – full funding – for the NNSA’s weapons life-extension programs. Another $2.7 billion would go toward infrastructure and operations.
The bill would provide $1.4 billion to the NNSA’s naval reactors program – $17 million above the current level but $43.1 million below the agency’s request – and $396 million for federal salaries and expenses – $6 million above the current level but $22.6 million below the budget request.
The House and Senate versions of the funding bill will next be considered by their respective full chambers, and must then be reconciled with one another before sending the final measure to the president.
The Senate as of Friday had not scheduled floor action on the energy bill, while the House is said to be packaging a number of appropriations bills together for a vote next week.
