Site Will Need $3.6B Next Year, Officials Say
WC Monitor
5/16/2014
Hanford will need about $3.6 billion in Fiscal Year 2016 to meet its legal obligations, officials said at the annual Hanford budget meeting this week. That’s $1.5 billion more than the Obama Administration has proposed for FY 2015 and still could not be enough to meet legal obligations. Department of Energy officials based their projection for FY 2016 on DOE’s proposal to amend the court-enforced consent decree that helps govern the cleanup of Hanford. The state’s proposal to amend the consent decree is more aggressive and could add $300 million more to annual budgets, according to an early estimate by the Tri-City Development Council. That increase does not include the state’s request for eight new double-shell tanks, which could add hundreds of millions more.
Ten milestones under the Tri-Party Agreement already are projected to be missed elsewhere at Hanford by the end of fiscal 2015, according to DOE. Most of those milestones will be missed because work fell behind schedule due to a continuing resolution or sequestration, said Jon Peschong, deputy assistant manager for cleanup at the DOE Richland Operations Office. Those include six milestones requiring plans to be made for cleanup projects, a pacing milestone toward getting the Plutonium Finishing Plant demolished and a milestone to start removing sludge from the K West Basin by September. The remaining two milestones, both for September 2015, are the result of lack of funds. They include retrieving temporarily buried suspect transuranic waste and certifying some mixed transuranic waste for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The administration’s budget request for fiscal 2015 does not cover that work.
Hanford is not going to get $3.6 billion in fiscal 2016, said Dave Einan of the Environmental Protection Agency. “We’re going to have to prioritize,” he said. However, the state will not accept lack of money as a reason for not doing required work, said John Price of the Washington State Department of Ecology. The Tri-Party Agreement requires DOE to request enough money to do required work. About 40 percent of the DOE environmental cleanup budget already goes to Hanford, pointed out Roy Gephart, a retired scientist. The Western Governors’ Association has recognized that issue and has asked that enough money be budgeted to meet cleanup obligations at all major DOE sites, Price said. Not only would the Hanford budget increase to meet obligations, but other cleanup sites also would receive more federal money under the association’s request.
ORP Proposal Would be Almost $2B
The fiscal 2016 budget proposal includes an increase in spending from the $545 million in the administration’s budget request for Hanford tank farms in fiscal 2015 to $961.3 million. Money for the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant would increase from $690 million to $970.6 million. That would bring the total budget request for those projects to almost $2 billion. In recent years the total budget for all Hanford work has been a little more than $2 billion. DOE plans to complete emptying all 16 tanks in the C Tank Farm in fiscal 2015 and prepare to start retrieving waste from the single-shell tanks in the A and AX Tank Farms, said JD Dowell, deputy manager of the DOE Office of River Protection. Work also would start under the tank farms budget toward a preliminary design of a Low Activity Waste Pretreatment System. DOE has proposed the new facility be built to allow some liquid tank waste to be pretreated before being sent to the vitrification plant while technical issues are being resolved at the vit plant’s Pretreatment Facility. The waste would go directly to the plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility to be treated for disposal. DOE expects the new pretreatment system outside the vit plant to cost $245 million to $375 million to complete.
Also in fiscal 2015, construction of the vit plant’s Standby Diesel Generator Facility and Anhydrous Ammonia Facility should be completed. In fiscal 2016 DOE expects to start the conceptual design of a new Tank Waste Characterization and Staging Facility outside the vit plant to prepare waste for treatment. The cost would be included in the tank farm budget. It would reduce the size of some large and dense particles of waste that could be problematic for the vit plant and also blend and mix waste so solids stay suspended and a uniform mixture is available for sampling and transferring to the vit plant. Total cost is estimated at $345 million to $685 million. Work to construct the vit plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility would be completed in 2016, other than work needed to feed waste to it directly from the tank farms.
Richland Proposal Would be Almost $1.8B
The fiscal 2016 budget for the Richland Operations Office is proposed to be almost $1.8 billion, up from $1 billion being spent this year. Among the increases would be $81 million more than proposed in fiscal 2015 to treat sludge stored in the K West Basin. Work to retrieve transuranic waste and certify some waste for shipment to WIPP would require a $329 million increase. The budget to treat groundwater would increase from the $116 million proposed for next year to $309 million. The budget for building demolition in central Hanford would increase by nearly $200 million. Planned work includes starting removal of the 618-10 burial ground’s vertical pipe units in fiscal 2015. In fiscal 2016 work would start on the 618-11 burial ground, a similar high risk burial ground near Energy Northwest’s commercial nuclear plant.
DOE also is proposing placing a higher priority on moving cesium and strontium capsules from an underwater basin to dry storage. The capsules have the highest concentration of radioactivity in the United States, Peschong said, and the underwater basin is at risk in a severe earthquake. In fiscal 2016 DOE would spend $9 million to improve the ventilation system at the Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility where the capsules are stored. The system, which is twice as old as its design life, must be improved to move the capsules to dry storage, Peschong said. Moving the capsules is estimated to cost $100 million to $120 million. Comments on the proposed budget are due June 13 and may be sent to [email protected] or Department of Energy; Attn: 2016 Budget; P.O. Box 550, A7-75; Richland, WA 99352.
WSCF Workers Get Layoff Details
WC Monitor
5/16/2014
Employees at Hanford’s Waste Sampling and Characterization Facility were given layoff details this week after the Department of Energy ordered the lab shut down. Up to 75 workers will be gone by Sept. 25, according to a memo sent to workers at the lab by Mission Support Alliance. It said earlier this spring that about 60 employees of RJ Lee, its subcontractor, work at the lab. In addition, about 18 Mission Support Alliance workers support lab work. Workers at the lab may volunteer for layoffs between June 16 and June 27. They may be eligible for severance pay, but possible benefits vary for union and nonunion and Mission Support Alliance and RJ Lee employees. Mission Support Alliance workers not assigned to the lab may not volunteer for layoffs, according to information provided to lab employees.
Workers approved for voluntary layoffs will be notified July 8, but they could continue to work until Sept. 25. Some workers will be needed to help close and secure the lab. On Sept. 2, layoff notices for additional workers are expected to be delivered, and workers being involuntarily laid off will be off the payroll Sept. 11. Mission Support Alliance is working to find jobs for its direct employees on other Hanford projects under its contract, said spokeswoman Deanna Hawkins. The lab also employs many longtime union employees who may be eligible to take the job of an employee elsewhere at Hanford with less longevity in a “bump and roll.”
DOE announced in March that it plans to stop operating the Waste Sampling and Characterization Facility in central Hanford to save money. An average savings of $12 million a year is anticipated by DOE, mostly from eliminating the cost of maintaining and operating the 40,000-square-foot lab. It was built in the early 1990s and opened in 1994 to analyze samples of air, water, soil, vapor and sludge with trace amounts of chemicals and radioactive materials. The samples are gathered from Hanford surveillance and monitoring and from environmental cleanup work. Washington Closure Hanford already has been sending its samples offsite and other Hanford contractors also will be sending their samples offsite for analysis. However, the 222-S Laboratory in central Hanford will continue to handle samples of high-level radioactive waste from Hanford waste tanks. Mission Support Alliance also has announced plans for a job fair Monday to hire some temporary employees to support moving Hanford workers among multiple offices. It is looking for heavy-truck drivers, carpenters and instrument technicians.
