Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
12/19/2014
The Department of Energy is still assessing potential impacts to Savannah River Site projects and workers after cleanup funds were cut about $29 million below the DOE request in the Fiscal Year 2015 spending bill recently passed by Congress. While most cleanup sites in the DOE complex saw a funding boost in the omnibus legislation, overall funding for Savannah River cleanup was cut to $1.121 billion in the bill, compared to $1.150 billion in the Administration’s request. “The Omnibus bill reduces funding to the SRS spent nuclear fuel and liquid waste program. The Department and its contractors are evaluating potential impacts to missions and workforce,” a DOE spokesman said in a statement this week.
Savannah River has also been hit hard by reductions in DOE’s budget request, particularly for the liquid waste program. As a result, numerous commitments to South Carolina for high-level waste tank closure will likely not meet their milestone dates. The state has threatened DOE with up to $150 million in penalties if it does not request adequate funding for liquid waste and is currently in dispute resolution with DOE on the Department’s first two milestone extension requests.
SC: ‘We Aren’t Getting What We Need’
Liquid waste operations in the omnibus bill total about $547.3 million, compared to $553.2 million in the request and $565.5 million in enacted funding. Additionally, the request for $34.6 million for the new Saltstone Disposal Unit was cut to $30 million. When asked this week about the Savannah River funding levels in the legislation, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Director Catherine Templeton said in a statement: “We aren’t getting what we need to sustain the project at the site and protect the environment. DOE isn’t doing what it is legally required and promised to do.” Templeton met with DOE Savannah River Operations Office Manager Dave Moody this week to discuss options for cleanup at the site.
Risk Management Activities See Cut
The spending bill also cut site risk management operations to about $398 million in the bill, compared to $416.3 million in the request and $432 million in enacted funding. That could impact a host of projects, chief among them risk reduction activities at the site’s 235-F facility, a former plutonium processing plant. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board urged action to reduce risk at the facility in a formal recommendation, and DOE last month delayed completion of a 235-F risk reduction plan by 29 months due to previous budget setbacks. The budget could also impact a number of new missions underway at the site’s H-Canyon facility, such as a new campaign to downblend highly enriched uranium.
Maintenance Backlogs Growing
Additionally, with funding tight, Savannah River contractors are facing mounting backlogs for deferred maintenance. When asked about the issue in July, Carol Johnson, president of M&O contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, said: “We are not making a lot of headway in corrective maintenance backlog reduction. I’m worried about that. I don’t know how much progress we are really going to make.” She has said that the backlog is “close to a billion dollars” and that for infrastructure projects the contractor would need about $30 million to $40 million per year to work off high priority projects. This week SRNS and liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation referred request for comment on budget impacts to DOE.
