With the partial shutdown of the federal government resolved, at least until mid-February, a lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for the canceled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) has resumed, according to a court filing this week.
The $200-million lawsuit ground to a halt during the 35-day shutdown, during which the Department of Justice could not pay U.S. attorneys to argue the case on the NNSA’s behalf.
But on Monday, Judge Thomas Wheeler in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims agreed to a procedural move that separates some $1 million in wage-related claims from the broader lawsuit filed in 2016 by MOX Services, prime contractor for the MFFF at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The NNSA in December had already paid MOX Services the roughly $1 million at issue here. The company said its customer illegally withheld the money by docking fees on the MFFF prime contract to compensate for what the government said were unauthorized raises given to 55 MOX Services employees after a 2015 merger between two of the company’s subcontractor-owners.
Although the government has already paid up, federal attorneys argued in December that Wheeler must split the matter from the master lawsuit and enter a final judgment so that it can be concluded. On Monday, Wheeler agreed to do so.
The NNSA in October formally terminated the MFFF, which was supposed to turn 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-usable plutonium into commercial reactor fuel under the 2000 U.S.-Russian Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement. It wants to use the MOX plant to produce nuclear-warhead cores and process the plutonium using other facilities at Savannah River.
When the NNSA first asked Congress to can the plutonium disposal plant, MOX Services sued its customer, claiming the government caused the delays and cost overruns that led it to cancel the plant. Among other things, the company alleged the NNSA changed the MFFF design, piling more work into construction and nuclear operations than originally intended.
