The Dept. of Energy's $7.7-billion Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., isn't dead yet. But the Obama administration's March budget request to put the unfinished plutonium disposal facility into "cold standby" could sound the bedeviled project's death knell.
The lack of an official baseline cost and schedule estimate, lax oversight by the project owner and suspected unforeseen design challenges sent construction costs soaring, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Long-term operational costs have more than doubled over early estimates—to more than $500 million per year—and DOE has failed to line up a utility willing to use MOX fuel.