The text of the proposed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released Tuesday approves spending up to $359 million on the High-Level Waste Vitrification Facility portion of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant being built by Bechtel National.
The administration of President Joe Biden proposed spending $316 million on the facility — a vital cog in converting Hanford’s high-level radioactive tank waste from decades of plutonium production into a stable glass form for disposal.
Design work on the high-level waste facility recently resumed. Funding for the project has been largely on hold since 2012 after questions were raised about the risk of explosion due to potential gas buildup in pipes and vessels. During each of the prior two fiscal years for 2021 and 2022, congress appropriated $25 million toward the project.
Operation of the high-level facility has been targeted for the 2030s while the Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste program could start in 2023 or 2024. An Office of Environmental Management budget official publicly acknowledged last week DOE might miss its December 2023 target to start making glass.
The DOE has legal authority to go into 2025 before converting its first canisters of low-level waste into glass form. That is due to a 2020 court order giving the feds an extended deadline to make up for time lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall the latest NDAA would OK almost $7 billion, $100 million more than requested, for defense environmental cleanup: the largest tranche of funds in DOE Office of Environmental Management spending.
