1 Mixed-Oxide Fuel Facility
Cost: $4 billion

Key Facts
Location: Aiken, S.C.
Owner: Department of Energy
Design/Builder: Shaw AREVA MOX Services, a joint venture of The Shaw Group, Baton Rouge, La., and Areva, Paris, France
Start Date: August 2007
Completion Date: 2016

Seldom does a construction project have the lofty goal of helping maintain world peace, but that’s the purpose of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.

The $4.8 billion facility being built by Shaw Areva MOX Services will process weapons-grade plutonium into fuel that can be used in nuclear reactors. Construction began in August and is expected to be complete at the end of 2016. The facility, a seven-story, 500,000 sq-ft building, is being constructed to Nuclear Regulatory Commission standards for nuclear fuel processing facilities, says Clay Ramsey, the federal project director for the facility.

The Shaw Areva joint venture is 70% owned by Baton Rouge, La.-based The Shaw Group and 30% owned by Areva of Paris, France. The group has a three-phase contract with the government to design, construct and test the facility; operate it for about 20 years; and then demolish it in the mid 2030s, Ramsey says.

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Shaw Areva began designing the MOX facility in 1999, and its design is based heavily on two MOX facilities built by Areva in France. The French have used MOX technology for almost two decades and currently supply MOX fuel to over 30 reactors worldwide.

The final contract is still being negotiated, Ramsey says. About $1 billion has already been spent on the project.

History, Purpose

The facility will remove impurities from the plutonium and then mix it with uranium oxide to form MOX fuel pellets for fuel assemblies that will be used in commercial nuclear power reactors.

The MOX facility consists of two major sections. The weapon-grade material is cleaned and purified in the seven-level aqueous polishing portion of the building. Another, three-level MOX area will be where the fabrication of the fuel takes place, from formation of the pellets to assembly of MOX fuel rods.

According to the DOE, when operational, the facility will be capable each year of turning 3.5 metric tons of weapon-grade plutonium into MOX fuel assemblies.

Construction of the facility should require 170,000 cu yds of concrete; 35,000 tons of reinforcing steel; 23,000 instruments; 1,000 tons of heating vents and air conditioning; 500,000 lin ft of conduit; 3 million lin ft of power and control cable; and 80 mi of piping.

Additionally, the facility will be hardened to a similar degree as a nuclear reactor.

About 1,000 people are currently working onsite. Of those, 300 are craft workers through local trade unions, Ramsey said. At peak construction, 1,600 workers will be on site.

While the project is currently on schedule and on budget, there have been some obstacles, primarily the lack of vendors and workers with experience in the nuclear field.

“The infrastructure for building a new nuclear facility has eroded since the last nuclear power plant was built,” Ramsey says. “We’re having to develop a number of suppliers ourselves and go out and meet that challenge.”

SRS

The Savannah River Site is one of DOE’s largest and most active sites in the country. The site’s focus is on recycling nuclear material, handling nuclear waste and storing nuclear material.
In addition to MOX, there are other projects moving forward at SRS, despite controversy over changes in the site’s primary contractor.

“The mission drives the work,” says Ernie Chaput, a former DOE manager at the site who now works with an area economic development group.

In January, the DOE announced that Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, a consortium led by Irving, Texas-based Fluor Corp., had been selected as the management and operating contractor. The cost-plus award-fee contract is valued at approximately $800 million per year.

Washington Savannah River Co., which had the contract for 19 years, protested the award, and that is under review.

Most of the work at the site, even at DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory, has real-world applications, says James Giusti, a DOE spokesman.

“The overwhelming majority of our work is directed toward solving some specific need for a specific customer,” he says. “Even when we perform basic science, it is for the purpose of meeting some specific need, not just increasing the body of scientific knowledge.”