Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a House of Representatives panel Thursday that progress is being made in improving the history of cost overruns and missed deadlines on big projects administered through the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management.
Perry testified for more than three hours before the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee. While much of the session focused on his use of noncommercial flights for travel and plans to aid the nuclear and coal industries through changes in power market regulation, Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) noted a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued earlier this year that was critical of contract management at the Office of Environmental Management (EM) and semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
“Historically there were some decisions made that were not, certainly in the best interest of the taxpayers; not in the best interest of a timely cleanup,” Perry acknowledged.
However, Perry said he is satisfied that EM’s recently completed 45-day review of its operations will expedite project timelines and reduce taxpayer costs. “I’m confident that in some of these really big projects, we are making progress,” he said of the office that oversees cleanup of DOE’s nuclear legacy. “As we speed these processes up, we save substantial amounts of money.”
The Energy Department has not, to date, released the results of the review.
The former Texas governor noted recent milestones at the Hanford Site in Washington state and the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico.
Bechtel National recently finished installing two melters for the Low-Activity Waste Facility at Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant. The LAW Facility will eventually process a portion of the 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste stored at the former plutonium production complex. A federal court order requires the WTP to begin full operations by the close of 2036. Processing of low-activity waste must begin by 2023, though Bechtel would forfeit millions of dollars in fees if processing does not begin in 2022.
“Significant progress has been made on key sections of the Waste Treatment Plant, and demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant is scheduled for completion this year or early next year,” Perry said during his written testimony.
The energy secretary said he likes the advances being made on the WTP vitrification plant under management and operations contractor Bechtel. “I have encouraged them to even be ahead of that schedule … that would be a very good thing,” Perry said.
Perry also noted that WIPP was back in operation and has resumed receiving TRU waste shipments for storage in the underground repository.
Harper asked if DOE under Perry would move away from “micromanagement” of its national laboratories. In an organization as large as DOE, field managers cannot simply be given free rein, Perry noted. At the same time, DOE must “free them to go manage and to make the right decisions,” he added.
