The first of two studies evaluating alternatives to the Savannah River Site's MOX program estimates that the program will cost about $51 billion to complete, with estimated completion in 2044.
The full study has not been released, but instead is for "official use" only. However, the Union of Concerned Scientists obtained a summary of the study, which was conducted by Aerospace - a California nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center.
Aerospace was instructed by the Department of Energy to conduct a congressionally mandated study of MOX and its alternatives.
According to the summary, the cost of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, or MOX, is about $20 billion more than what the Energy Department reported last year. The $51 billion includes the $4 billion already spent on MOX.
The figure is based on whether MOX was to be funded at $500 million per year, closer to the level the Department of Energy has said it would take to make significant progress. If MOX was funded at $375 million per year - $30 million less than its current funding - Aerospace reported it would cost about $110 billion to complete.
The program is part of a nonproliferation agreement with Russia to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium.
The MOX method of plutonium disposition was compared to a downblending method, the first of four alternatives. The downblending method would be executed using inhibitor materials, or materials that slow down the chemical process.
The solution would then be packaged into approved canisters and shipped to a repository for permanent disposal.
In this option, SRS also would be used for downblending, and then the material would be shipped off to a repository.
Using downblending, Aerospace wrote that disposition would total $17 billion, about $30 billion less than the MOX method.
"Costs for (Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility) shutdown to a safe state at the end of operations are included in this assessment; however, this study did not assess MFFF decommission and return to green field," Aerospace wrote.
In March, U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, and Robert Brady, D-Pennsylvania, came together and submitted a letter to Ernest Moniz, the Department of Energy secretary, questioning DOE's selection of Aerospace Corp. to conduct the mandated study on alternatives to constructing the MOX facility.
Aerospace, a California-based nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center, or FFRDC, headquartered in California, has a background in space missions rather than the nuclear field.
"We fail to understand why DOE did not choose a FFRDC that has broader expertise in nuclear materials disposition and nuclear construction," Wilson and Brady wrote. "This selection seems comparable to selecting a nuclear engineering company to review a satellite program at the Department of Defense."
The two also noted that Aerospace is providing engineering advisory support for the B61 gravity bomb life-extension program - a program intended to extend the lifetime of a nuclear weapon for an additional 20 to 30 years, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Wilson and Brady wrote that funding for the program could see a boost if funds for MOX are redirected.
"We question whether Aerospace can conduct a fair and unbiased study in light of its role in the B61 program," they wrote.
The MOX program received construction funding from Congress this fiscal year after an attempt by the federal government to freeze construction. The program has been plagued with cost overruns because of underfunding and mismanagement, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The second half of the report is slated for a mid-September release and will compare MOX to other plutonium disposition alternatives. There has been no word on when the full MOX report will surface.
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the paper since June 2013. He is originally from Vidalia, Ga., and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Follow him on Twitter @DerrekAsberry.