MOX hoodwinking cracking apart as history of boondoggle slowly revealed
DOE’s failed plutonium fuel (MOX) project: 1999 DOE document reveals a deception of stunning proportions
Don’t be fooled when DOE officials, MOX contractors and the media compare costs of the failed plutonium fuel (MOX) program to much higher estimates from 2008. This is being done in order to make it look like costs increases are much smaller than they really are and obscure the fact that Congress and the public were hoodwinked from the start about costs of the failed MOX project.
The calculated hoodwinking is coming to an end but when will DOE/NNSA officials and Shaw AREVA MOX Services be held accountable for the massive MOX boondoggle??? How long can self-serving politicians like Senator Lindsey Graham and Representative Joe Wilson continue the cover-up?
When will hearings be held to get to the bottom of this text-book case of mismanagement and deception?
See DOE document “LIFE CYCLE COSTS FOR THE DOMESTIC REACTOR-BASED PLUTONIUM DISPOSITION OPTION” for estimates from 1999 —- The document reveals a staggering cost increase in the estimated life-cycle cost of the MOX project, including MOX plant construction, from 1999 to 2014.
MOX program life-cycle cost in 1999: $1.4 billion; in 2014: $30 – $35 billion
Cost increase: $28.6 billion to $33.6 billion
MOX plant construction in 1999: $723 million; in 2014: $7.7 billion official, but DOE officials say it’s closer to $10 billion
Cost increase: $7 billion to $9.2 billion
A historic document taken from the archives and posted recently by the DOE’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI):
“LIFE CYCLE COSTS FOR THE DOMESTIC REACTOR-BASED PLUTONIUM DISPOSITION OPTION”
ORNL/TM-1999-257, Oak Ridge National Lab, published October 1999
Overall life-cycle cost: $1.4 billion estimate
“The baseline cost elements used for this document are the same as those used for examination of the preferred sites described in the site-specific final environmental impact statement and in the DOE Record of Decision that will follow in late 1999. Cost data are separated by facilities, government
accounting categories, contract phases, and expenditures anticipated by the various organizations who will participate in the program over a 20-year period. Total LCCs to DOE/MD are projected at approximately $1.4 billion for a 33-MT plutonium disposition mission.”
Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF): $723 million estimate
“For this estimate, a TPC (design, construction, and cold startup cost) of $723M has been calculated from the SRS-sited DO-CDR estimate and includes the addition of design/construction cost data for the aqueous polishing portion of the MOX FFF building not included in the DO-CDR but covered separately in the final EIS.”