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More than a decade later, the mixed oxide fuel [2] (MOX) plant is running into mounting troubles [3], including long delays, soaring costs and the lack of utilities committed to use the new fuel in their reactors

But there’s another aspect of the story that has received little attention. Two of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s safety reviewers for the project say the NRC has taken shortcuts on safety to avoid delaying the construction. Work on the facility was allowed to begin, they say, before some of the most essential questions were fully answered. They have been particularly concerned about the danger of chemical explosions, the adequacy of the ventilation and radioactive waste disposal systems and the way the plutonium will be tracked as it is processed.

Alex Murray, the lead chemical process engineer on the NRC review team, has said in public documents [4] that he was removed from the project in 2007, after he repeatedly warned that safety plans to prevent a chemical explosion risk specific to this type of plant were inadequate and could lead to a significant release of radioactive material.

After Murray was reassigned, the NRC hired Dan Tedder, a chemical engineering professor from the Georgia Institute of Technology who had participated in technical reviews for the Department of Energy since 1979. Tedder said he resigned less than a year later because he believed that the plant’s chemical engineering plans were incomplete and felt that his concerns were brushed aside……..

The MOX plant is the first new construction authorized by the NRC since the Three Mile Island accident [6] in 1979. It is located at the federal Savannah River Site [7], an old bomb-making complex near Aiken, S.C. Originally estimated at $1.4 billion, it is now expected to cost taxpayers [8] nearly $5 billion. It won’t begin producing fuel until 2016 at the earliest, about a decade behind schedule.

The NRC’s jurisdiction, Dan Tedder noted, is narrow. The agency regulates hazardous chemicals produced from radioactive materials. But it does not identify and protect against all chemical hazards.

For instance, the chemical mixing and storage building that adjoins the MOX plant is regulated by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The NRC says it’s responsible for any event that could affect the MOX plant, but safety reviewers said that dual setup could leave workers vulnerable if an accident occurred.

He said it’s also unclear how all the radioactive waste from the plant will be tracked and stored. Waste issues fall under the jurisdiction of the Energy Department, which is building a new plant where liquid waste will be treated, mixed into cement and packed into 55-gallon drums. But it has not been decided yet where the waste will ultimately be disposed of…..

“We need congressional hearings on this,” Tedder said. “The NRC review of MOX is not comprehensive. As a professional engineer, I find this position unacceptable and inconsistent with accepted engineering practices.”

.Safety Reviewers Raise Questions about Construction of New Nuclear Fuel Plant – ProPublica