GAO says cost of MOX plant rises by $2 billion
[link to chronicle.augusta.com]

[snip]

In an annual assessment to Congress on the most expensive “high-risk” federal projects, the GAO said the Na­tion­al Nuclear Security Ad­min­is­tration “recently added $2 billion to the project’s cost estimate, even as the facility nears completion.”

The disclosure, which raises the plant’s cost to $6.8 billion, is the first official confirmation of a major cost increase in the project to dispose of surplus plutonium by blending it with commercial reactor fuel.

The environmental groups cited a 2003 Energy De­­part­ment forecast that the plant would be completed in 2007, with a construction cost of $1.7 billion.