The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday rejected an amendment to its fiscal 2019 energy and water bill that would have siphoned away certain increased funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and Energy Department environmental cleanup programs.
During the committee markup of the bill, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) proposed the amendment to help restore $271 million lost between the current enacted budget and the bill’s fiscal 2019 proposal for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
To do so, Cartwright’s amendment would have reduced funding in the 2019 energy appropriations bill for a half-dozen line items, in amounts ranging from $3 million to $100 million
For example, the lawmaker proposed to eliminate the $30 million boost that would have raised the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund up to $870 million for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The fund finances cleanup of gaseous diffusion plants at Portsmouth, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Likewise, the Cartwright amendment would have eliminated a $100 million increase for DOE, above the Trump administration’s $90 million proposed fiscal 2019 level, for the Nuclear Waste Disposal line item for Yucca Mountain licensing.
The committee voted 28-21 against the amendment. It then voted 29-20 to send the bill for a vote by the full House, which had not been scheduled as of deadline. The Senate Appropriations subcommittee for energy and water is expected to take up the bill Tuesday followed by a full committee markup on Thursday.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee that produced the bill, said the amendment would have undermined the Energy Department’s plan to end the bartering of surplus uranium to supplement cleanup funding of the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. In the past DOE has used bartering to make up for funding gaps at Portsmouth.
The current bill would provide nearly $270 million for DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository in Nevada.
The overall bill provides $36 billion for DOE, including $6.9 billion for its Office of Environmental Management (EM). That would be $257 million less than the fiscal 2018 appropriation but $268 million more than the Trump administration’s request. Briefly note a few sites that would get extra money – even if they’re Hanford or other sites getting their own coverage.
Under the House bill, a number of major sites within the DOE’s Cold War cleanup complex would receive at least equal funding for fiscal 2019 as they did in the 2018 fiscal year.
- The Idaho National Laboratory would get $433 million under the committee bill — about equal with the $434 million level in 2018, but considerably more than the $349 million administration request. The committee bill, like the 2018 budget, includes $10 million for decommissioning and decontamination of excess facilities at Idaho.
- The bill meets the $397 million DOE request for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. That would be up from roughly $377 million in the final 2018 budget. Like the administration request, the committee bill would provide $84 million in construction money for a new ventilation system, slightly less than the $86 million in the 2018 budget.
- Cleanup of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, which is listed under a subcategory of National Nuclear Security Administration sites – was budgeted at $198 million in the committee bill. That is down from $220 million in fiscal 2018 but more than the $192 million requested by the administration for fiscal 2019.
- The Portsmouth Site in Ohio would get $414 million through the Appropriations Committee bill in Uranium Enrichment, Decontamination and Decommissioning fund money, $32 million more than the final 2018 level of $381 million. It’s also $65 million above what the administration sought for fiscal 2019.
- The Paducah Site in Kentucky would get $223 million in UED&D money, more than both the final 2018 level of $206 million and the $203 million proposed by the Trump administration.
- When it comes to non-defense environmental cleanup, the Appropriations Committee bill would split almost $101 million between cleanup of gaseous diffusion plants in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. That would be about flat with fiscal 2018 and the administration’s requested level for 2019.
- The committee would fund small sites at $62 million, below the the $120 million in non-defense cleanup money they got in 2018, but more than the $55 million included in the administration request.
- The West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York would be funded at $75 million in the appropriation bill, equal to the final 2018 level but more than the $61 million in non-defense cleanup money requested by the administration for 2019.
- The Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) in New York would get $15 million in the committee bill, equal to the administration request and more than the $5 million budgeted in fiscal 2018.
- Environmental work at the Nevada National Security Site would be funded at $60 million in the committee bill. That’s flat with the 2018 level and the administration’s 2019 request.
- The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California would not get any money for cleanup of excess facilities under the House bill and the administration’s budget request. The lab received $100 million in funding for excess facilities in fiscal 2018.
