MOX Boondoggle Mini-Update – November 5, 2014
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors is to meet on November 6, 2014 in Nashville, Tennessee. Though there is an agenda item entitled “Report of the Nuclear Oversight Committee,” it is believed that the issue of use of experimental weapon-grade MOX fuel by TVA won’t be discussed.
To say the least, TVA’s interest in MOX use in its aging Browns Ferry boiling water reactors and the Sequoyah pressurized water reactors (ice condenser design) has been tepid. There have been few developments in the last two years concerning a TVA review of MOX use and the TVA board hasn’t discussed the matter in the last few years.
The completion of the US DOE’s “Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement” (SEIS) on MOX use by TVA has been frozen for years and, as of Ocfiber 15, remains “under departmental review.” In the draft SEIS document, released in July 2012, it was revealed that TVA had balked at MOX use: “The TVA does not have a preferred alternative at this time regarding whether to pursue irradiation of MOX fuel in TVA reactors and which reactors might be used for this purpose.”
click here for DOE’s EIS schedule released on October 15, 2014 – stay tuned for the next schedule update around November 15
Revealing how far it is from instituting sound project management for the MOX boondoggle, DOE’s Office of Management still listed as of October 30 the “project budget” for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility construction at $ 4,857,129,000. This is the estimated cost of the project from about 6 years ago. DOE states that the “Project is expected to breach its Performance Baseline cost, schedule, or scope.” Uh, well, yeah… DOE admitted in early 2014 that the construction cost is officially at $7.7 billion and at least one official has publicly stated to Congress that the cost could be closer to $10 billion. Does this mean that MOX construction is $3-6 billion over budget? Where has DOE stated what the current budget for the project is?
In the Washington world of blank checks for failed projects, does the Office of Management even care about getting the MOX project under control? We’ve seen no sign of that after years of waiting. Heads should roll in the Office of Management but we know how that goes as the public waits for accountability for the MOX project. To Anne Boleyn and Mary, Queen of Scots and Marie Antoinette: we can only hope that the arc of the universe indeed does bend toward justice.
See the Office of Management – Office of Acquisition and Project Management “Project Dashboard” of October 30, 2014 here