During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday with Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) pronounced herself “really disappointed with this year’s request” by the Department of Energy for cleanup of the Hanford Site in her home state.
The Joe Biden administration’s fiscal 2023 request of $2.5 billion for Hanford was not only less than the $2.6 billion included for the site in a 2022 omnibus budget bill but also lower than what DOE, in the latest lifecycle cost estimate for the former plutonium-production complex, projected Hanford would need, Murray said during the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee hearing.
In particular, Murray said it appears DOE will “just kick the can down the road” on the contamination beneath Building 324, which sits a few hundred years from the Columbia River. The building supported research on highly radioactive materials for 30 years, until 1996. Demolition was delayed in 2010 after workers discovered significant contamination under part of the building, likely due to a prior radioactive waste spill, according to DOE.
Contamination is believed to reach six to eight feet below the B-Cell floor at 324 and the radiation levels are high enough to require use of remotely-operated tools, according to a 2022 fact sheet from DOE.
“Cleanup of that site is extremely important” to the Hanford community and “your request will not support that work,” Murray told Granholm.
“We will maintain Building 324 … It should be safe for this year,” Granholm said, adding she expects remediation money to be included in the 2024 budget.
