N.M. SENATOR PUSHES FOR MORE WIPP, LANL CLEANUP FUNDING

If the Obama Administration wants support for plans to ship Hanford tank waste believed to be transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, it will have to do more to help with funding for WIPP and with Los Alamos cleanup efforts, New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall (D) said yesterday at a Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing. Udall applauded the approval of an Office of Environmental Management reprogramming request that shifts $19 million to Los Alamos cleanup efforts, but he noted that DOE has said another $21 million is needed at the site to help perform other cleanup activities. Likewise, Udall suggested that funding for WIPP is insufficient, with more needed for operations and repairs at the site, and he bemoaned the fact that $24 million in WIPP road assistance had been stripped from the budget in recent years. “If DOE wants New Mexico to step up and help with Hanford, will DOE step up to help New Mexico with Los Alamos cleanup, with maintenance [funding for WIPP], and restoring state road funding?” Udall said during an exchange with acting Energy Secretary Dan Poneman.

Poneman said the Department was working to finalize another reprogramming to move $21 million to EM, likely from the National Nuclear Security Administration. “I can tell you we’re working on it urgently but I don’t have the date it’s going to come over,” Poneman said on the sidelines of the hearing, adding: “We’re figuring out what to do and where to get the dollars.” Poneman, however did not commit to any additional funding for WIPP. “We have had to in these distressed budget times and under the Continuing Resolution and sequester make certain economies,” Poneman said. “We’re focusing on operating that facility safely and reliably. If we can achieve certain savings that can be rededicated we are working to do that.” He said the Department would work with Congress and state regulators to ensure that material from Hanford would be done “analytically, technically, carefully and accurately and in full transparency and consultation not only with you, Senator, but with the state regulatory authorities.”