Could MOX Plant Cuts Provide DOE Nuclear Budget Slack?

We had an interesting visit this morning at the Journal from Sandia Labs president Paul Hommert. Among other things, we talked about budget uncertainty as our hapless Congress (my word, not Paul’s) faces a March 1 deadline to come up with some sort of Grand Federal Budget Fix or face automatic sequesters that could dig into Sandia’s budget. Or will it?

For starters, Hommert told the Journal’s editorial board that Sandia has been aggressively managing this year with an eye toward likely cuts of some sort (see my story in Wednesday’s newspaper for details). But there are uncertainties about where the Department of Energy would cut, and how deep, given the need to slash something.

With the idea of big cuts looming, there is talk of meeting a big chunk of the need for nuclear program reductions by lopping off money for the mixed oxide fuel fabrication plant in South Carolina. It appears that solution would free up money to lessen the blow elsewhere. Roll Call has a look at the MOX cut possibility:

Given the threat of sequester, supporters of a $4.8 billion mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility worry that the Obama administration may be targeting the troubled nuclear reprocessing project in South Carolina for budget cuts.