Still No Direction to Contractor on ‘Cold Standby’
Kenneth Fletcher
NS&D Monitor
4/18/2014
As the state of South Carolina this week filed for summary judgement in its challenge to the Department of Energy’s planned suspension of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, the Department still has not provided any direction to the project’s contractor on the move to “cold standby.” The state filed suit last month in the U.S. District Court for South Carolina after the Department’s announcement that it would suspend work on the facility, and South Carolina has focused on a lack of Congressional approval for the move. “This action is in violation of Constitutional law and contrary to legislative directives expressed through the Congressional appropriation of funds for construction of the MOX Facility and statutory obligations imposed to construct the Project,” states the motion for summary judgement. “As a result, DOE’s and NNSA’s decision to indefinitely suspend construction of the MOX Facility should be set aside and they should be directed to continue expending funds and proceeding with construction as Congressionally mandated.”
Citing cost increases during tight budgets, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to suspend work on the facility while it further analyzes alternatives to MOX construction. The facility is currently the option agreed to in a deal with Russia for disposal of 34 metric tons of weapons grade plutonium in each country. The NNSA had planned to work in March with contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services to develop a “detailed cold standby plan” for stopping work, according to the Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, though that hasn’t occurred yet. The South Carolina suit could halt any suspension of the project until the court makes a decision, though it is unclear how the NNSA will interpret it— when asked, agency spokesman Josh McConaha declined to comment on the “legal question” or the schedule for suspension of the project.
S.C.: MOX Cuts Rejected by Congress
The suspension of the project comes after the NNSA last year sought to slash funding for MOX to slow down construction and launched an alternatives study, though Congress subsequently provided a boost in funds for MOX in its FY’14 appropriations bills. “The purported reasons for placing the MOX Facility in ‘cold standby’ were identical to those advanced by DOE/NNSA in support of slowing down the Project in Fiscal Year 2014—‘cost increases and the current budget environment’—which were specifically rejected by Congress,” states the South Carolina motion. “Neither DOE nor NNSA has provided any new justification for shutting down the MOX Facility, nor have they identified any viable alternative for the disposition of weapons-grade plutonium. Instead, having been rejected by Congress before, DOE and NNSA have effectively decided to leave unprocessed weapons-grade plutonium at SRS indefinitely by executive fiat.”
The state listed a number of issues in which a MOX shutdown would negatively impact South Carolina. That includes “ loss of jobs and economic benefits, rendering South Carolina the indefinite ‘dumping ground for surplus weapons-grade plutonium,’ exposing the State’s citizens to increased radiation exposure, and increasing the likelihood of terrorist attacks within the State in a bid to acquire the plutonium.”
Alternatives Assessment Still Not Released
So far DOE officials generally have referred requests for more details on the decision to the plutonium disposition alternatives assessment undertaken launched last year by DOE Senior Advisor John MacWilliams. Though acting NNSA chief Bruce Held said earlier this month that the report may be released this week, so far it has not been made public. The MacWilliams study reportedly includes a $30 billion figure for the lifecycle cost of the MOX plant. But that number has been disputed by an official for facility contractor AREVA, who said that $4 billion has been spent so far and remaining costs including operating the facility total less than $13 billion, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
Tom Clements of the newly formed activist group SRS Watch has reached his own estimate for lifecycle costs, stating that about $22 billion is left to be spent on the program. This week he called on DOE and the contractor to release their cost information. “As my estimate methodology is far from perfect, it is far beyond time when NNSA and Shaw AREVA MOX Services release reliable, independently reviewed costs estimates as the public has the right to know what the true costs of the project. Given that DOE has called the project ‘unsustainable,’ AREVA has to have the opportunity to challenge that claim and make a full, documented case about costs and how the tax payer can fund MOX over the next decades,” said Clements.
