News Update on MOX Plant Project
March 20, 2013
from Tom Clements
SRS Plutonium Fuel (MOX) Plant Continues to Spin Out of Control: Cost Jumps to $7.7 Billion, with
Three Year Delay
DOE Continues Cover-up of MOX Costs Overruns at Congressional Hearing
Columbia, South Carolina - Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has confirmed that
problems with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) plutonium fuel (MOX) program continue to worsen
and costs soar.
The GAO, in a statement released today at a congressional hearing, dropped a bombshell that further
justifies termination of the MOX project at the Savannah River Site:
“DOE is currently forecasting an increase in the total project cost for the MOX facility from $4.9 billion
to $7.7 billion and a delay in the start of operations from October 2016 to November 2019."
The statement, entitled “Concerns with Major Construction Projects at the Office of Environmental
Management and NNSA, was released as testimony was given by a GAO official before a hearing by the
House Energy and Water Subcommittee on problems with DOE’s mismanagement of large construction
projects.
With this stunning news, it appears that the MOX project is doomed to elimination.
“The years of hard work by public interest groups to terminate funding for the MOX program is paying
off,” said Tom Clements. “Predictions that MOX costs would spin out of control have proved correct
and it is now time for DOE to immediately begin a study for plutonium disposition alternatives, a socalled Plan B.”
At the hearing, DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNAS) officials confirmed chronic
problems in managing such large, costly projects as MOX, but left it to GAO to outline details of
problems with the MOX program.
Failure by DOE and NNSA officials in the Office of Acquisition and Project Management to reveal details
of cost overruns of the MOX program goes to the heart of the on-going cover-up of MOX plant
mismanagement and cost increases.
After two years, DOE still continues to claim it is “rebaselining” the cost of the MOX plant and that the
new cost estimate cannot be released. Yet, the same officials at today’s hearing cut the legs out from
under this excuse by admitting that quarterly report are sent to the GAO about the project and an
“earned value management system” tracks costs on a monthly basis.
The time for endless excuses about problems and costs with the MOX program may well be coming to
an end after years by DOE and NNSA of artfully dodging accountability.
The cost of the MOX plant construction has soared from an estimated $1.8 billion in 2004 to $4.9 billion
in 2008 to $7.7 billion on March 20, 2103.
DOE /NNSA/AREVA is also refusing to release an overall life-cycle cost estimate for plutonium
disposition, estimated to be on the order of $18 billion yet to be spent.
More will be known about the fate of the problem-plagued MOX project when the DOE budget request
for Fiscal Year 2014 is released on April 8. Rumors persist that the project will be cut $500 million this
year and only funded in out years enough to close the program out. Predictably, Senator MOX (Lindsey
Graham) continues to push for a blank check for the project but it appears to have spun too far out of
control for him to save it.
DOE indicated in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget request that it would need $3.6 billion for the project from
Fiscal Years 2014-2017, so what it is likely to get is far below what it needs to keep the project going.
Now that the roof of the MOX plant is being finished, a good stopping point to save the building for
other use has been reached.
“It has been painful for true fiscal conservatives and advocates of good government to watch the huge
waste for the MOX program, said Tom Clements, SRS public interest watchdog based in Columbia, South
Carolina. “Now, it must be determined who in the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security
Administration and Shaw AREVA MOX services is accountable for the MOX boondoggle of massive
proportions”
See Government Accountability Office full statement linked at: http://gao.gov/assets/660/653154.pdf
At a hearing right now - Wednesday morning, March 20 - before the House Energy and Water
Subcommittee on management of major DOE construction projects, the GAO witness - Mr. Trimble,
Director, Natural Resources and Environment, Government Accountability Office - testified that the MOX
plant contractor's new costs estimate for the MOX plant construction at the DOE's Savannah River
Site (SRS) had increased from $4.9 billion to $7.7 billion. He also said the project is facing a 3-year
delay.
In one step, the cost has gone up a shocking $2.8 billion.
This cost is $700 million more than what GAO said in a "high risk" report in mid-February.
As the testimony with this news was read by Mr. Trimble, I assume that it will be posted on line on the
subcommittee website:
Hearing website: http://appropriations.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=323266
E&W subcommittee website: http://appropriations.house.gov/subcommittees/subcommittee/?IssueID=34796
Part of the increase was attributed to problems with plutonium glove boxes, redesigning the facility to add
a "pit disassembly" mission to the plant, NNSA misjudgment about lack of ability to obtain nuclear quality
materials (NQA-1) and from poor DOE management. It is not at all clear that the problems are being
addressed. GAO witness said that DOE management efforts are "promising" but the result of their efforts
are "not yet clear" and that large DOE construction projects continue to have significant cost increases
and schedule delays.
it was mentioned that the official new "rebaselining" of the MOX plant cost by DOE is still underway. After
two years of claiming that rebaselining was underway, teh failure to do so is more proof that DOE/NNSA
and Shaw AREVA MOX Services simply do not know what they are doing in managing this project.
The full statement by GAO's Trimble was released today - Concerns with Major Construction Projects at
the Office of EnvironmentalManagement and NNSA - http://gao.gov/assets/660/653154.pdf. It says:
"GAO's ongoing review of NNSA's Plutonium Disposition Program, including examining recent problems
with the ongoing construction of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility and the Waste
Solidification Building at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, has resulted in some preliminary
observations that highlight the need."
And, "DOE is currently forecasting an increase in the totalproject cost for the MOX facility from $4.9
billion to $7.7 billion and a delay in the start of operations from October 2016 to November 2019."
This huge cost increase is more justification to pull the plug on a MOX project that is totally out of
control.
I am still hearing that the project could be cut 75% in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget (to be released on April
8) and that it could be slowly eliminated due to massive cost overruns. A DOE official told me last week,
off the record, that the MOX plant project will be eliminated and that part of decision relates to how much
more funding that Senator Lindsey Graham (aka Senator MOX) will agree to. I am hearing that the roof
of the MOX plant is now being finished, a good stopping point for this troubled project. We shall see.
Tom Clements
Southeastern Nuclear Campaign Coordinator
Friends of the Earth
Columbia, SC
tel. 803-834-3084
cell 803-240-7268
tomclements329@cs.comn