Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
3/27/2015
Senators from Washington state and New Mexico pressed Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz over cleanup programs in their states at a Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing this week. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) led with concerns about DOE’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request for Hanford’s Richland Operations Office, which was cut about $93 million below enacted levels. “I’m really concerned about the FY’16 budget request for Hanford waste cleanup and in the case of the 324 building and the 618-10 burial grounds, they’d be stopped or mothballed or kicked down the road,” Murray said. “Those are projects that are well underway, and we’ve spent $209 million on them combined. It seems to me that DOE is now trying to pull the plug on them, which creates a safety risk, a cleanup delay, big cost increases and missing those Tri-Party Agreement milestones.”
While the budget request cites technical challenges as a reason for the cuts, “no one has been able to pinpoint to me what those technical challenges are,” Murray said. Moniz replied: “Maybe the best thing to do is we come in to talk with you or your staff as you prefer and try to work through the whole—.” Murray interjected: “Our subcommittee fought to provide $45 million in additional funding for those projects last year, so why hasn’t DOE used that money to forward these really critical projects?” Moniz replied that he would get back to the topic later with more detail.
Moniz: ‘I Think It’s a Strong Program’
The Department has emphasized that despite the Richland cuts, as a whole Hanford’s budget would be increased by about $100 million in FY 2016 given a proposed increase of around $202 million for the Office of River Protection, largely to support the Waste Treatment Plant. “I like to talk about the entire Hanford site, where we have a $100 million increase in the budget, but Richland is down 100 and essentially the WTP is up for us to move that forward. On the Richland side I would note that we have made considerable progress opening up a portion of the River Corridor,” Moniz said, adding: “I believe we are going to finish the Plutonium Finishing Plant down to slab, we will continue the cleanup of the groundwater in the central plateau, we will continue to make progress along the corridor. So I think it’s a strong program.”
Sen. Udall: New Mexico Has a Regulatory Role at WIPP
Also at this week’s hearing, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) asked Moniz about the status of discussions between DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department over $54 million in fines the state is levying due to the 2014 incidents at Los Alamos and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. DOE has balked at paying the penalties, questioning New Mexico’s authority to levy the fines and emphasizing that they would come out of cleanup funding. “I want to reiterate my view that the state of New Mexico has a regulatory role at WIPP, and I think you understand this very well,” Udall said. “This was something I fought for as New Mexico’s attorney general, we actually won a lawsuit against the Department of Energy at the time.”
New Mexico officials have said that the state hopes to come to an agreement with DOE on the WIPP and Los Alamos compliance orders in order to avoid delaying the reopening of WIPP, which has been shut down since the events. “This is a unique situation,” Udall said. “You are dealing with the only state in the union that has ever accepted a nuclear waste facility, and I’m hopeful that a constructive dialogue over the state of New Mexico’s fines for the Department can continue along that line. Now can you talk to us a little bit about working constructively to make sure this happens rather than heading into a litigation track that could take many many years, and are you committed to working with us to try and get that situation resolved?”
Moniz: Discussions ‘At a Very Professional Level’
DOE would “very much” like to resolve the issue, Moniz replied. “The discussions, I obviously can’t go into details here since they are part of a resolution pathway we hope, but we are very committed and we are very encouraged,” he said. “I would say the discussions are going on at a very professional level and I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to resolve this, just to the benefit, I might say, of New Mexico and the Department.”
