U.S. House bill could finish MOX at SRS

Submitted photo.

A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this week calls for a reduction of $100 billion to nuclear weapons programs, as well as the termination of the $4.8 billion MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility project at the Savannah River Site.

Introduced by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., the bill - Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act 2012 - aims to reduce the number of the Navy's nuclear-armed submarines, reduce the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and ban the development of a new-long range penetrating bomber aircraft.

"America's nuclear weapons budget is locked into a Cold War time machine. It doesn't reflect our 21st-century security needs. It makes no sense. It is insane," Markey said in a speech on the House floor this week. "The SANE Act cuts $100 billion in spending over the next 10 years on outdated, wasteful nuclear weapons programs. ... Let's cut new nuclear weapons, not the poor, the sick, the children and the elderly of our country."

The bill proposes that "none of the funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for fiscal year 2013 or any fiscal year thereafter for the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy may be obligated or expended for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project."

The National Nuclear Security Administration's MOX facility, intended to become operational in 2016, would turn surplus weapons-grade plutonium into reactor fuel to be used in commercial nuclear power plants.

The bill has 35 co-sponsors, but South Carolina legislators are not among them.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said Thursday that he does not believe the bill stands much chance.

"MOX is a national asset," he said. "I am opposed to Rep. Markey's legislation to strip funding for MOX, and I do not believe the bill will ever move past the committee level. I stand committed to ensuring MOX construction continues on schedule so that America can carry out its international nuclear nonproliferation obligations while simultaneously producing fuel which supplies power to millions of Americans."

Kevin Bishop, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., echoed Wilson's support for the MOX facility.

"(Graham) would work vigorously to defeat this legislation, should it gain any traction in Congress," Bishop said.

Tom Clements, nonproliferation policy director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, said in a statement that the ANA supports the termination of the bill's efforts to terminate the MOX project.

"A new study by DOE on alternatives to MOX must begin immediately as the failure of the MOX program will mean that we are back to square one with plutonium disposition, which is unacceptable," Clements said.

Anna Dolianitis is a reporter for the Aiken Standard. She covers the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, as well as court and legal matters affecting Aiken County. She has been with the Aiken Standard since August 2010.