The fiscal 2020 energy and water funding bill approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee would slash funding for a $50 million facility intended to reduce the cost and time of cleaning up nuclear waste at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The Energy Department requested all $50 million for the design and construction of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC), a 60,000-square-foot facility to be located near the University of South Carolina Aiken campus, roughly 15 miles from the 310-square-mile Savannah River Site.
But the House bill provides just $2.8 million for building the facility, leaving questions on how construction would be carried out without the entire lump sum DOE requested for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.
“The Committee notes that the Department has requested the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative facility as a line-item construction project, and the recommendation provides the amount that can be obligated in fiscal year 2020. The Committee is supportive of this effort,” according to the detailed committee report for the legislation.
The bill does not provide timetables for construction, how much longer construction would take due to the $47 million cut, or any other related details.
The $46.4 billion energy and water development appropriations measure now waits for action on the House floor, which Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) has said could occur in June. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet released its version of the legislation.
The House measure would provide $7.2 billion in fiscal 2020 for nuclear cleanup operations managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, roughly even with the current level but about $700 million more than the Trump administration requested.
The bill would provide $1.43 billion for defense and nondefense environmental remediation at Savannah River – about $33.2 million less than what DOE requested for fiscal 2020, but $42.2 million more than the enacted level for the current budget year that ends Sept. 30.
The primary difference in SRS funding is the $47.2 million removed for construction of the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative.
The Energy Department is to fund construction of the facility, after which the Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor will lease it to the Aiken Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a private partner that will operate the AMC. Will Williams, a member of the Aiken group, declined to comment this week on the matter while funding levels are still being decided in Congress.
But in a March inquiry following the release of the DOE budget proposal, Williams said the group hoped for an annual budget of $2.5 million for the facility, which would fall under a line item in the Savannah River National Laboratory budget.
The AMC is expected to expedite SRS cleanup, including its liquid waste mission, which includes treatment of liquid waste, closing waste storage tanks, and decommissioning facilities. The facility would employ at least 110 workers and house chemistry and engineering fabrication labs, along with high bay and industrial work space.
The facility will use technology to expedite the remediation mission. For example, it will develop robots that can go into waste tanks and collect waste samples for assessments. The facility would also use virtual technology to run simulation tests on cleanup strategies before the work is physically done.
The AMC has not received funding to date, and it is unclear when construction would begin or how long it will take. But once built, Williams said the hope is that the Aiken partnership will be able to bring other private partners on board that will want to use the facility for advanced technology projects.
Other major projects at Savannah River would receive minimal funding changes from the DOE request, at most, under the House bill. For example, the Energy Department requested $797.7 million for liquid waste treatment, $100.8 million more than the enacted level for fiscal 2019. The bill met that number, including $21 million for startup and “hot operations” of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). The $2.3 billion plant will convert millions of gallons of salt waste into a less harmful form, suitable for permanent storage at Savannah River.
Going “hot” means the SWPF will officially begin processing waste. That is expected to begin in December, a year later than DOE previously projected, but sooner than the January 2021 deadline.
