The U.S. Department of Energy’s record of policing itself is “mixed at best,” and the agency might benefit from independent oversight by an entity such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said Tuesday.
Pallone made his remarks during a House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee hearing on U.S. nuclear infrastructure.
“For example, the [DOE] Environmental Management program in recent years has been plagued by high-profile leaks of radioactive waste, contractor problems, missed deadlines and escalating cleanup costs,” Pallone said.
The department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) has spent $35 billion in the last six years to clean up nuclear and hazardous wastes at Cold War nuclear sites, Pallone said: “Yet, environmental liability grew over the same time period by over $90 billion.”
The lawmaker also cited a 2014 report from the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, which found DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration lacked a strong plan for modernizing and upgrading its national security mission.
Introducing an outside regulator might improve things, Pallone said: “This is an idea that the Subcommittee on Energy has explored on a bipartisan basis in the past and it may be time to do so again.”
Pallone’s remarks didn’t draw any immediate comments from his colleagues on the committee or a panel of witnesses, which included senior officials from the Office of Environmental Management, NNSA, and NRC.
In a separate exchange, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) pressed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for EM James Owendoff about DOE’s “uranium barter” program, in which DOE trades excess government uranium to help underwrite the cost of cleanup at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio. Shimkus said the practice hurts the nuclear fuel cycle industry in the United States.
Critics say that putting excess uranium on the market further depresses the already-anemic domestic uranium production industry.
Shimkus asked Owendoff if the Office of Environmental Management had sought to discontinue the uranium barter program in favor of full appropriations. Owendoff responded that the program has been reduced significantly, from 1,600 metric tons to 1,200 metric tons in 2017.
“You are diminishing it,” Shimkus said.
“I believe we have done that,” Owendoff replied. Shimkus then broke in again to invite Owendoff to discuss the matter at another time.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has placed a hold on the nomination of Anne Marie White become assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, until DOE promises to discontinue its uranium barter program.
