A member of a U.S. Senate subcommittee said the Savannah River Site's MOX project is suffering from an "apex of problems" en route to suggesting the nation move forward with an alternative method for plutonium disposition.
Dianne Feinstein, D-California, is a high-ranking member of the Senate's Energy and Water Subcommittee.
During a hearing Tuesday, Feinstein expressed concerns that the federal budget proposal is seeking $345 million for construction of the SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, a key component of the nation's plutonium-disposition program.
The program is part of a nonproliferation agreement with Russia to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium.
A recent Congressionally mandated study estimates the cradle-to-grave, or life cycle, cost of the program is $51 billion, including the $4.4 billion already spent.
Feinstein said Tuesday that spikes in funding have occurred in a number of the nation's uranium and plutonium programs.
"I don't believe we can afford to proceed," Feinstein said.
She added that funding to make real progress on the project would be $500 million to $1.3 billion per year just for construction and $1 billion per year for operations.
"These funding levels will quickly crowd out other priorities in the defense portion of our bill, including nuclear nonproliferation activities, environmental cleanup and rehabilitating our nuclear-weapons infrastructure," she said.
Feinstein said she'd like to see the nation move forward with the down-blending option, an alternative listed in the recent study that researchers believe will cost about $17 billion. The 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 down-blending, and then the material would be shipped to a repository.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, is the chairman of the committee and echoed Feinstein's concerns.
"We do have to take a look at the MOX facility. This bill not only provides money for the MOX facility; it also provides a red team of the type that took a look at the uranium facility to come back with suggestions," Alexander said.
Less than a day after the $51 billion figure was released, Congressional supporters of MOX and partners of the contractor spoke out against the price tag.
Three of the Palmetto State's congressmen, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott and Rep. Joe Wilson, released a statement questioning the study, which was conducted by Aerospace Corp. - a California nonprofit that operates a federally funded research and development center.
"Having already spent $4.4 billion on the project to achieve roughly 65 percent completion, we find it difficult to understand how completing and operating the project will cost another $47.5 billion," they wrote.
Derrek Asberry is the SRS beat reporter for the Aiken Standard.