When President Donald Trump signed a multiagency appropriations package Sept. 21, it assured the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management about $7.2 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year starting Oct. 1.
The DOE-funding “minibus,” approved by Congress earlier this month, provides the largest budget for the department’s nuclear cleanup office since it received almost $7.3 billion in fiscal 2005. It is $53 million more than the fiscal 2018 enacted level and $578 million above the administration ‘s request. That covers more than $6 billion for defense environmental cleanup; $310 million for nondefense environmental cleanup; and about $841 million from DOE’s Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund, which pays for environmental remediation at three former gaseous diffusion plants in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
As a provision of the 2019 budget package, the Energy Department will not trade or barter any uranium to defray cleanup costs at the DOE Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The funding plan increased the portion of the fund designated for work at Portsmouth by $60 million above the administration request, to $366 million, to offset suspension of the uranium barter program.
The Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state will get roughly $1.57 billion, well above the $1.44 billion sought by the administration and more than the $1.56 billion budgeted in fiscal 2018. The ORP will responsible for treating and disposing of about 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical tank waste.
Hanford’s Richland Operations Office will get $865 million, $2 million more than its 2018 level and a major spike from the $658 million sought by the administration. For example, the final version put Central Plateau remediation at $660 million, reinstating all but $2 million of a $100 million reduction from the 2018 budget proposed by the administration. The Richland office oversees site infrastructure and work done by contractors.
The $410 million budgeted for the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee is $10 million more than the $400 million enacted for 2018 and far above the $226 million in the administration request. The Oak Ridge spending package includes $76 million in construction funding for the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility, $59 million more than 2018 and $65 million more than had been sought by the administration.
The Savannah River Site cleanup program in South Carolina is budgeted for about $1.39 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, up from the current level of $1.31 billion but less than the $1.47 billion requested by the administration. Virtually “every site received their budget request or were plused-up, except for the Savannah River Site,” Gil Allensworth, chairman of the SRS Citizens Advisory Board, said during a meeting Wednesday.
The cleanup-related budget for the Idaho National Laboratory was set at $433 million, just below last year’s $434 million, but above the $349 million administration request.
“The funding level will allow the significant cleanup activities currently underway to continue,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee’s energy and water development subcommittee. Included in the amount is $10 million to decommission and disposition INL facilities and infrastructure.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is funded at $220 million in fiscal 2019, which is more than the $192 million administration request.
The Separations Process Research Unit in New York state, which is in its final stages of remediation, is funded at $15 million, which is $10 million more than last year and flat with the administration request.
The West Valley Demonstration Project in New York was funded at $75 million, level with 2018 but above the $61 million administration request.
Environmental management at the Nevada National Security Site was set at $60 million, level with both 2018 and the administration request.
