Several of the 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would receive less money during the upcoming fiscal 2021 than they do in the current budget, under the latest spending proposal from the administration of President Donald Trump.
Environmental remediation funding for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee would drop from $450 million enacted for fiscal 2020 to $432 million for budget year beginning Oct. 1. The Energy Department said in its budget in brief that funding will be sufficient for slab and soil remediation at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a former uranium enrichment complex, as well as for continued design of a new waste landfill to take debris from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex.
“As a member of the House Appropriations Committee I will continue to do all I can to ensure that the site receives the funding that it needs for the next fiscal year,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), whose congressional district covers parts of Oak Ridge, said in an emailed statement.
The request for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is $390 million for fiscal 2021, down from the enacted $397 million. The request includes $50 million toward sinking a new underground utility shaft to provide additional access for equipment and materials to the 2,100-feet deep repository for defense-related transuranic waste.
Idaho National Laboratory cleanup funding would drop from about $434 million in the current fiscal year to $271 million under the request. The Energy Department says the funding will support operation of the long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit for sodium-bearing waste, as well as continued shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP.
Remediation funding for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico would fall from $220 million to $120 million. The administration’s budget material says this is sufficient to control a hexavalent chromium plume and address other soil or water contamination issues at the site.
