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.
In an appearance before a subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, DOE Office of Environmental Management senior adviser William (Ike) White testified the request provides $316.2 million to gear up work on the Waste Treatment Plant’s High Level Waste facility at Hanford.
But that facility, expected to start turning high-level tank waste into glass in the 2030s, “is only at the beginning of its significant lifecycle costs,” which are expected to rise over the decade, Murray told Granholm.
As she did during an appearance before House appropriators last week, Granholm said she understands the importance of Hanford cleanup. “We believe this is a good budget” overall that will keep Hanford safe. “We acknowledge there are differing equities and points of view, ” the energy secretary said.
Murray’s questioning of Granholm was some of the more pointed of the hour-long hearing, which included bipartisan concern over rising energy prices and attempts by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) to get Granholm to weigh in on energy dealings the president’s son, Hunter Biden, has reportedly had in Ukraine.
“Sir, I have no information on anything you are talking about,” Granholm said in response to the Hunter Biden inquiries.
