MOX PROJECT FACING DELAYS, HIGHER COSTS BECAUSE OF BUDGET CUTS

摘要

The National Nuclear Security Administration is taking another look at the cost and schedule for building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in light of severe cuts in the Fiscal Year 2008 omnibus appropriations act, NNSA officials told Congress at a pair of hearings last week. Funding for construction of the facility was cut by $112 million in the omnibus and the agency was barred from using an additional $115 million in prior balances. As a result, William Tobey, the NNSA's Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, said the project is currently being re-baselined. "Budget cuts to an approved baseline result in project delays and higher costs," Tobey told the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee March 12. "There's no way around it. It's a matter of physics and math."