29 May (NucNet): Costs of a mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel facility being built by a Shaw-Areva joint venture in the US have increased by billions of dollars due to a lack of controls, according to a new audit.
Construction of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina started in 2007. With a 4.8 billion US dollars (USD) (3.5 billion euro) price tag, it was supposed to be completed by 2016.
But an audit by the DOE’s inspector-general says that by October 2013, about USD 4 billion had been spent on the project and latest available project estimates showed it was about 60 percent complete. Design work is still under way in a number of areas including software, instrumentation and control systems, as well as fire suppression and various mechanical systems.
The facility’s costs have grown to USD 7.7 billion, with a new completion date of November 2019, the audit says.
The anticipated cost and time required to complete the facility were “significantly underestimated” due to a number of factors. They included, most prominently, the DOE’s 2007 approval of a project baseline that was “developed from an immature design”, understating the level of effort to install various construction commodity items, and high personnel turnover rates.
The DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the facility’s contractor, Shaw Areva MOX Services, have been “largely unsuccessful in controlling the cost and schedule for the facility”, the inspector-general reported.
A March 2012 construction project review conducted by NNSA concluded that the facility had “a very low probability” of being completed according to the approved baseline.
The audit says that although the DOE is examining alternative plutonium disposition strategies in light of the MOX facility’s cost growth, schedule delays and budget restrictions, the project continues to receive significant funding, including about USD 442 million in fiscal year 2014, which was USD 82 million more than the DOE originally requested.
The report calls on the DOE to ask Shaw Areva MOX Services to develop “a new baseline change proposal” that incorporates the results of the alternative plutonium disposition strategies.
The facility is being built by the DOE in response to a disposition agreement, signed between the US and Russia in September 2000, for the disposal of surplus weapon-grade plutonium. The agreement called for each country to dispose of at least 34 tonnes of plutonium by converting it into MOX fuel that can be used in commercial nuclear power reactors.
The DOE based its MOX facility design on processes and facilities already operating in France, but modified the designs to meet US requirements and regulations.
The report is online: http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1174317/energy-dept.pdf
