Mike Nartker and Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
2/13/2015
Lawmakers this week questioned the Department of Energy’s proposed funding cut next year for cleanup work at the Portsmouth and Paducah gaseous diffusion plants. DOE’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request would provide $167 million funding for D&D work at Portsmouth, a cut of approximately $49 million from current funding levels and a cut that could lead to layoffs. During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on DOE’s request, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) told Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz that he was “disappointed” with the Department’s proposed cut. “To the extent you can continue accelerated cleanup, one it is safer for the community, but second you save the taxpayers billions of dollars. We believe we saved somewhere between $3 [billion] and $7 billion at Fernald alone in a bipartisan way supporting that. So I have expressed my concern about the fact that we are not getting the commitment here from the Administration,” Portman said.
He added, “We’ve got to have this ability to clean up the site. You know we saved 700 people from losing their jobs just before Christmas by at the last minute figuring out some ways to move funds around on Capitol Hill. … I appreciate them doing that. But a much better solution is to set a schedule and stick to it.”
In response, Moniz noted that cleanup work at Portsmouth is also funded through uranium transfers, by which DOE provides the site’s D&D contractor, Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, with excess uranium that the contractor then sells and uses the proceeds to pay for work. “The request is roughly what the request was last year. Congress was able to add about $50 million to that. I would just add that the unresolved issue as well is the question of the uranium transfers. We are involved in some litigation right now. We are in middle of doing the new secretarial determination in terms of how much uranium we can barter to help support cleanup,” Moniz said.
Rep. Whitfield ‘Extremely Disappointed’ With Proposed Paducah Cut
Moniz also faced criticism this week from Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), who during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on DOE’s request, criticized DOE’s proposed FY16 funding cut for cleanup work at the Paducah site. DOE’s request would provide approximately $168.7 million in D&D funding at Paducah, a cut of approximately $38 million from current funding levels. DOE has sought to explain the proposed cut by saying it reflects the move of the Paducah plant into a “steady state maintenance mode.”
Whitfield, though, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the proposed funding cut in his opening remarks at this week’s subcommittee hearing. “Since the DOE has now awarded the deactivation contract at the site, there is a mechanism to begin significant work, but consistent and adequate funding to begin cleanup is necessary. Now is not the time to slow down, but to push the project forward,” Whitfield told Moniz.
