Construction of MOX Facility Marks 10th Anniversary – No Celebration Expected Given Mismanaged Construction and as Project Remains on Life Support and On Track to Termination

Columbia, SC — With no fanfare expected and no reason to celebrate, the problem-plagued plutonium fuel (MOX) plant under construction at the Savannah River Site has now reached its 10th anniversary of construction.

The project remains barely alive and is on the Trump administration’s chopping block, so it is anticipated that there will be no formal recognition of the date by either the U.S. Department of Energy or by CB&I AREVA MOX Services, the contractor that remains at the MOX plant even after bungling its construction.

Construction of the MOX plant began on August 1, 2007 by DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration. At that time there was misplaced optimism that the plant could be efficiently constructed on a budget and schedule to produce MOX fuel as a way to dispose of surplus weapons plutonium, via irradiation in commercial nuclear power reactors. But shortly after construction got underway it was clear that something was awry as cost estimates increased and the schedule steadily slipped. Later, it was learned that construction had started long before plant design was sufficiently completed, causing a host of key design changes during construction, which may have been the kiss of death for the facility.