The Senate at press time Friday had not voted on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2017 but voted 68-23 during its morning session to end debate on the bill. Consideration has been slowed by disagreements over amendments, over 600 of which have been filed.
The $602 billion Senate bill authorizes $12.9 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, including $9.2 billion for weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation. It also authorizes $340 million for the Department of Energy to continue constructing the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility, which was designed to convert surplus plutonium into commercial fuel under a nonproliferation agreement with Russia.
Actual funding would be provided in appropriations legislation. The Senate has approved its version of the fiscal 2017 energy and water spending bill, while the House failed to do the same.
The Obama administration requested $285 million for fiscal 2017 to shut down the facility and pursue an alternative strategy to dilute and dispose of 34 metric tons of plutonium at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and then store it at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. According to the administration, the MOX approach is expected to cost $45 billion or more over its lifetime, while the alternative approach would save tens of billions of dollars and years of work.
The Senate legislation directs the secretary of energy, in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to deliver an assessment on the risks posed by the MOX facility and whether the contract structure for its construction could be changed to reduce costs and minimize the risks.
The Army Corps of Engineers would be given 30 days to submit the report to the DOE, which would then have 60 days to share the assessment with Congress and gauge the contractor’s interest in a potentially revised contract. CB&I AREVA MOX Services is the prime on the facility.
The White House on Tuesday issued a veto threat to the Senate NDAA in a statement of administration policy that, among various issues, objected to the MOX cost and schedule study the bill would require. “Even with a firm fixed price contract for the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility, numerous previous studies have confirmed that the alternative disposition method is expected to be significantly faster and less expensive,” the statement said.
The MOX project “would only serve to waste limited national security funds and force more pressing nuclear security needs to go unmet,” the White House said.
The House of Representatives on May 19 approved its version of the NDAA, which would authorize $13.3 billion for the NNSA and directs the agency to continue MOX construction. It was met with a similar White House veto threat that objected to the “delay in funding the alternative plutonium disposition option.”
Separately, a Senate NDAA amendment offered by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) calls for 25-year cost estimates for U.S. nuclear modernization activities, including the costs associated with delivery systems. Another amendment from Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) calls for development of a strategy within five years to enhance the security of high-risk radiological materials and to submit a report to Congress within 120 days describing the new strategy as well as the NNSA’s current radiological security activities.
The Senate has not yet considered these amendments. Meanwhile, two amendments that would have increased both defense and non-defense spending by $18 billion were rejected Thursday.
