Members of the Pacific Northwest congressional delegation are prepared to fight a $230 million budget cut for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. If approved by Congress, funding for cleanup of the former plutonium production complex would drop to roughly $2.185 billion in the DOE fiscal 2019 budget proposal issued Monday.
The proposed cuts would “make this budget proposal downright dangerous for everyone who lives near the Columbia River,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said the administration’s spending request suggests legal milestones for cleanup at Hanford might not be met, based on the site’s experience with previous budget shortfalls. She is also concerned safety could be shortchanged. “Hanford must be fully funded so work can be done on time,” Cantwell said.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called the budget numbers “extremely disappointing, especially in the wake of recent events highlighting the hazards that must still be addressed and the risks this cleanup poses to workers, the public and the environment.” In May, one of the radioactive waste storage tunnels for Hanford’s PUREX Plant was discovered partially collapsed, and radioactive particles have in recent months spread during open-air demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
Murray said she would not let Hanford workers and the Tri-Cities community near the site “be punished because the Trump administration doesn’t understand or respect the federal government’s obligation to clean up the site. I am confident the Democrats and Republicans alike will set aside this short-sighted proposal from the president.”
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) also said he would work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to restore Hanford funding, just as he has done every budget cycle since being elected in 2014. “Now is not the time to jeopardize worker safety or impede this vital cleanup effort,” said Newhouse, whose central Washington congressional district covers Hanford.
The requested Hanford budget is smaller than the Trump administration’s first budget proposal, issued last May for fiscal 2018. The Energy Department then sought to cut spending at Hanford by $119 million. However, Congress has failed to pass a full budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, instead keeping the government open via a series of stopgap measures that have largely frozen spending at prior-year levels.
Under the latest administration proposal, the DOE Office of River Protection (ORP) at Hanford would receive $1.438 billion in fiscal 2019, which is $61 million below current spending. The office, which oversees management of more than 56 million gallons of radioactive waste, would receive: $705 million for the Waste Treatment Plant being built to convert the waste into a glass form for disposal; $678 million for the waste-storage tank farms; and $56 million for the Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System needed to start vitrifying low-activity radioactive waste as soon as 2022.
The administration’s latest proposal requests $35 million less for the tank farms than requested for fiscal 2018, $37 million less for the Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System, and an increase of $7 million for the Waste Treatment Plant.
The fiscal 2019 budget request would be sufficient to meet Office of River Protection regulatory commitments, according to the DOE Budget in Brief document explaining the request. It would enable the development and maintenance of infrastructure that will be needed for waste treatment operations and continue the focus on construction, startup, and commissioning of the facilities needed to start treating low-activity radioactive waste by 2023, it said.
But the Tri-City Development Council was skeptical. At that funding level “it would be extremely difficult to keep Waste Treatment Plant construction on track,” said David Reeploeg, the economic development organization’s vice president for federal programs. Under federal court order, the plant must be fully operational by 2036. TRIDEC believes a minimum of $850 million is needed for the Waste Treatment Plant to keep work on schedule to meet consent decree milestones set by the federal court in 2016.
The DOE Richland Operations Office would receive $747 million under the administration’s budget request – $169 million below current spending levels. The office is responsible for Hanford Site operations and all cleanup other than work related to the tank farms. The decrease reflects expected full demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant before fiscal 2019 and completed facility modifications to prepare for sludge removal systems for the K West Basin, according to the Budget in Brief.
The document said the administration’s request would allow continued progress required by the Tri-Party Agreement, which governs remediation at Hanford. It would support certification of contact-handled or remote-handled transuranic mixed low-level radioactive waste; allow continued preparations to move cesium and strontium capsules to dry storage; allow continued remediation in the 100 K Area; and support progress to remove sludge in the K West Basin from underwater storage.
