Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said last week he favors increasing funding for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina by more than $51 million above the Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2021 budget request, mostly to finance improvements at the H Canyon complex.
Wilson noted that H Canyon as the only hardened nuclear chemical separations plant operating in the United States. The facility has been underfunded in recent years, Wilson said during the House Appropriations Committee’s June 23 “member day” meeting.
“With hundreds of metric tons of low enrichment uranium yet to be processed through H Canyon it is critical to accelerate operations,” said Wilson, whose district includes the Savannah River Site. The congressman said $45 million of the total should go to the line item that includes H Canyon.
H Canyon began operating in the 1950s to recover uranium and neptunium from fuel tubes used in nuclear reactors at the Savannah River Site, to make materials used in production of nuclear weapons. After the Cold War, its mission changed to focus on nonproliferation, including converting weapon-usable highly enriched uranium into proliferation-resistant low-enriched uranium, according to DOE material.
The nuclear material stabilization and disposition budget at SRS, which includes H Canyon, would decrease from $361 million in fiscal 2020 to $317 million under the president’s request for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. H Canyon budget does not have an individual line item.
The Energy Department in total wants $1.53 billion for environmental work at Savannah River. This includes opening of the Salt Waste Processing Facility that will separate low-activity radioactive waste from high-activity waste.
Wilson also wants another $6 million added to the SRS budget for other purposes, including community support, such as payment in lieu of taxes for localities around the Savannah River Site.
Wilson is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, which has authorization power over defense environmental spending levels at Savannah River and other nuclear cleanup sites under the DOE Office of Environmental Management.
