The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 25-to-five on Wednesday a fiscal year 2022 spending bill for the Department of Energy and other agencies with roughly $7.7-billion for Department of Energy nuclear weapons cleanup.
The committee’s plan for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) office, which oversees cleanup of 16 Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear sites, is more than the $7.6 billion enacted for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 but roughly $50 million less than the $7.76 billion included in the budget bill that passed the House of Representatives last week.
Defense Environmental Cleanup, the largest tranche of EM funding, would be just over $6.5 billion, more than the $6.4 billion in the fiscal 2021 enacted level, but less than the $6.6 billion approved by the House of Representatives.
Non-defense environmental spending would be set at $339 million in the Senate committee’s proposal, equal to the amount sought by the White House, and $5 million more than what passed the House. Non-defense cleanup spending is $319 million in the current fiscal year.
The Senate committee’s proposal would fund the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund at $860 million, or $19 million more than the fiscal 2021 appropriation and $29 million more than the House proposal and the DOE request.
The Hanford Site in Washington state, the former plutonium production complex, would see its combined funding for two field offices remain above $2.5 billion, nearly a third of the overall EM budget, but the Idaho National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee would get a haircut, compared with last year in the Senate panel’s version.
The Richland Operations Office at Hanford would be budgeted at $939 million, or $12 million more than both the fiscal 2021 level as well as the DOE request and the House bill. The Senate committee’s total for Hanford’s Office of River Protection is almost $1.65 billion, equal to the 2021 appropriation and the 2022 budget proposed by the full House of Representatives and roughly $104 million more than requested.
Like the House proposal, the Senate Appropriations bill would provide $144 million for development of the High-Level Waste Facility at the Waste Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel at the Hanford Site. The construction project was funded at $25 million last year and DOE requested $60 million for fiscal 2022.
In its May budget request justification, DOE said it would restart planning and procurements to support construction. The more recent Senate Appropriations report says funds will be provided “for full engineering, procurement, and construction work” on the High-Level Waste Treatment Facility.
Cleanup funds for the Idaho National Laboratory would be about $370 million, equal to the DOE request but $64 million less than both the fiscal 2021 level and the House bill.
Likewise, cleanup funding at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee would also be pared to $424 million or $51 million less fiscal 2021, the request and the House bill’s level.
The Savannah River Site in South Carolina would receive $1.58 billion, $50 million more than the current spending year and still relatively flat with what passed the House.
Like the House proposal, the Senate committee’s bill would provide $430 million for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, a figure equal to what DOE sought and $17 million more than last year’s appropriation.
The West Valley Demonstration Project in New York would receive $88 million under the Senate panel’s bill which is consistent with the House bill, the 2021 budget and the DOE request for 2022.
Like the House bill, the Small Sites line item would receive $124 million in the Senate bill, which is $13 million more than 2021, but less than DOE’s $129-million request.
The full Senate had not scheduled a vote on the bill at deadline.
