Both U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and National Nuclear Security Administration chief Lisa Gordon-Hagerty attended and participated in a Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility summit with the president last week, according to U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.
"Oh, yeah, she was there," Wilson said of Gordon-Hagerty. "So she was there and … so was Secretary Perry."
Wilson, a fervent fan of the now-canceled MOX project, was one of several South Carolina officials – including U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster and S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson – who were also at that meeting. All are Republicans.
The first chunk of Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility employees to be laid off will likely receive a heads up next month, according to a bu…
During the forward-looking MOX meeting, President Donald Trump was "listening to all sides," Joe Wilson said Tuesday following a speech to the Aiken Republican Club.
"As always, the president, he actually pays attention," the congressman said.
"Rick and Lisa gave their point, and then the governor, and then both U.S. senators, and then finally the congressperson got to make comments," he continued, referencing himself in third person. "And we respectfully disagreed with the views, what was presented."
U.S. Office of Management and Budget representatives were present at the MOX meeting, too. Mick Mulvaney, a South Carolina political veteran and the current OMB director, was not, according to Joe Wilson.
Mulvaney was critical of MOX during a conference with South Carolina leaders in September, according to a handful of those who attended.
MOX is an incomplete facility, located at the Savannah River Site, designed to turn weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for commercial reactors.
Both Perry and Gordon-Hagerty have repeatedly argued against the MOX project and its completion.
On May 10, Perry submitted a MOX-killing waiver to congressional defense committees. On Oct. 10, the NNSA, a semiautonomous U.S. Department of Energy agency, terminated the MOX contract in its entirety.
Both Perry and Gordon-Hagerty have expressed support for dilute-and-dispose, another plutonium disposition method, which involves mixing plutonium with inert material for burial offsite.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who strongly supports the project, has described the MOX process as "taking a sword and …
South Carolina's MOX-hopeful have repeatedly called into question – if not fully ridiculed – the dilute-and-dispose approach.
Joe Wilson said Graham, during the White House meeting, made it "emphatically clear" dilute-and-dispose would prove troublesome.
In respective statements issued after the Oct. 18 White House get-together, Graham, Scott and Joe Wilson thanked the president for his time and attention.
Scott described the conversation as "very productive," noting the president was "certainly open to our comments." Joe Wilson described it as "productive."
Multiple inquiries submitted to the NNSA about meeting attendance have not been returned.
