Request May be ‘Heavy Lift’ for Lawmakers
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
5/23/2014
As Congressional appropriators prepare to mark up funding bills for Fiscal Year 2015, the Department of Energy has told lawmakers that about an extra $140 million may be needed for recovery efforts at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant next year, WC Monitor has learned. The initial estimate of about $140 million would be on top of the $216 million requested for WIPP operations and maintenance in DOE’s FY’15 budget request. Investigations are still ongoing into the cause of the Feb. 14 radiation release at the repository (see related story) and the full extent of cleanup and restart efforts that will be undertaken is still unclear.
Because of the tight budget environment and number of uncertainties that remain, appropriators will need to see a recovery plan that breaks down recovery costs before allocating more funding, one Congressional aide told WC Monitor. “They’re still learning a lot about what’s going on. We want to make sure if we sign on to something that they do the necessary work to make sure it fleshed out and not just a number they’ve thrown out there,” the aide said. “We want them to put together a clearly articulated plan.”
While WIPP is shut down, the Department is using funds that would have been used for operations for the recovery effort and has not asked for a reprogramming of funds in FY ‘14, a Hill staffer told WC Monitor. Among the numerous issues that remain to be worked out among DOE and lawmakers includes whether to keep on the entire workforce at WIPP during recovery. “I think for ‘15 hopefully they’ll have a better grasp of the problem and start to address it and what to do with the current workforce,” the staffer said. “It’s that transition and gap between when they may reopen it or start to receive some shipments as opposed to a different type of workforce that’s needed to cleanup or build a new air shaft. Who knows what’s going to be required?” The staffer said that $140 million would be a “heavy lift” for FY’15, but is being taken into consideration by appropriators.
