Most of the Department of Energy’s major cleanup sites would see boosts to their authorized funding levels above what DOE proposed in its Fiscal Year 2014 budget request under the Senate FY 2014 Defense Authorization Act, more details of which were released yesterday. The bill, which has been approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, rejects DOE’s proposal to reauthorize federal and utility payments into the federal uranium enrichment D&D fund that helps cover the costs of cleaning up the Oak Ridge, Paducah and Portsmouth sites. Instead, the bill would take the $462 million DOE had sought in FY14 for the fund and redirect toward what lawmakers described in the report accompanying the measure as “other higher priority cleanup needs in the Department.” The House version of the defense policy bill would also reject DOE’s uranium enrichment D&D fund proposal, though it would just eliminate the requested defense environmental cleanup funds to carry it out.
The biggest winner in the Senate bill is the Savannah River Site, which would have the authorized funding level for liquid waste cleanup activities increased by approximately $150 million from DOE’s request. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project at SRS would also have its authorized funding level increased by $80 million from DOE’s request. At Hanford, the bill would increase the authorized funding level for tank waste activities by $50 million and for other cleanup activities by $20 million. The authorized funding level for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant would be increased by $33 million from DOE’s request; while the authorized funding level for cleanup work at the Idaho site would be boosted by $30 million.
The Senate bill also would require the Government Accountability Office to prepare by June 30, 2014, a report on the facilities the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to transfer over to the DOE Office of Environmental Management. The GAO would also be required to “periodically brief” the Senate Armed Services Committee on the progress of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant during FY 2014. “The Department is encouraged to expedite the treatment of the low level waste streams and come to a decision on whether an additional pre-treatment plant is needed for the high level waste stream,“ the report accompanying the Senate bill says. “The overall completion cost of the project has risen from $5.8 billion to $12.3 billion. The construction of an additional pre-treatment plant for high level waste will increase the cost further. The committee directs the Department to ensure the committee is informed of decisions on directly treating the low level waste and whether another pre-treatment plant is needed for the high level waste,” the report says.
