The Government Accountability Office (GAO) continues to point out failures by DOE/NNSA in managing construction of the MOX plant at SRS. How long will DOE go on ignoring sound management practices? How long will the MOX cover-up continue? Meanwhile, cost overruns and delays mount with the MOX boondoggle and DOE’s effort to ignore GAO recommendations is wearing thin.
See GAO report released on February 11, 2015: “High-Risk Series: An Update” linked here
See page 300 for language on mismanagement of the failed MOX project:
“In February 2014 we reported that DOE had forecasted a cost increase of approximately $2.9 billion and a schedule delay of about 3 years for NNSA’s Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility that is currently under construction at DOE’s Savannah River Site. This increase would raise the total estimated cost of the facility to approximately $7.7 billion and extend the completion date to 2019. Since the project began in 1997, the estimated cost of the project has increased by more than $6.3 billion and the schedule has been delayed by about 15 years. We found that, among other things, NNSA had not analyzed the root causes of the construction cost increases to help identify lessons learned and to help address the agency’s difficulty in completing projects within cost and schedule. We also found that NNSA’s most recent cost estimates for the overall plutonium disposition program, of which the MOX facility is a part, did not fully reflect all the characteristics of reliable cost and schedule estimates, placing the program at risk of further cost increases. We recommended that, among other things, DOE conduct a root cause analysis of the program’s cost increases and ensure that future estimates of the program’s life-cycle cost and cost and schedule for the program’s construction projects meet all best practices for reliable estimates. DOE generally agreed with our recommendations.”
But DOE continues to do nothing to rein in the MOX boondoggle. The burning questions remain: Will Congress step in to demand this abysmal situation be addressed? How long can this cover-up up of management negligence go on? When will DOE/NNSA and CB&I AREVA MOX Services managers be held accountable? ???????
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Analysis by Nuclear Watch of New Mexico of DOE’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request, February 11, 2015
DOE Nuclear Weapons Budget Up 10%, Equals Cold War Record — Huge Startup for Nuclear Cruise Missile Warhead — $4 Billion Slated for LANL Plutonium Pit Production Facilities — Cleanup and Dismantlement Funding Flat
Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, like SRS Watch, is a member group of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (public interest groups near DOE sites)