Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
12/19/2014
A federal fund used to help cover cleanup costs at the Oak Ridge, Paducah and Portsmouth sites remains on track to be empty by Fiscal Year 2020, at which point the Department of Energy will need to find other Congressional funding sources to pay for the work, according to a draft DOE report obtained by WC Monitor. The Uranium Enrichment D&D Fund is now facing a shortfall of $13.5 billion to complete the cleanup of former uranium enrichment plants, according to the executive summary of a draft status report on the fund dated March 2014, which has not yet been made public. That’s approximately $1.7 billion more than the shortfall outlined in a 2010 status report on the fund, which also projected the fund would be exhausted in 2020. A DOE official declined to comment this week on the draft 2014 report.
The Uranium Enrichment D&D Fund was established as part of the 1992 Energy Policy Act to help cover the cost of cleaning up the gaseous diffusion enrichment plants at the Portsmouth, Paducah and Oak Ridge sites. The fund, which saw its authorization expire in 2007, was to last for 15 years, with utilities to contribute a total of $2.5 billion and DOE to contribute a total of $4.95 billion. Currently the fund has a balance of $4.2 billion, according to the March 2014 report.
At Oak Ridge, the estimated cost to complete the remaining cleanup covered by the fund is $1.9 billion, with work to be completed by FY 2024, according to the report. At Portsmouth, site D&D contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, was expected to provide an updated cost and schedule for completion this spring, the report says, noting that under the “current conceptual design,” work is expected to be completed by 2044. At Paducah, which DOE became fully responsible for this year, a 2006 baseline puts the start of D&D activities at FY 2017, with work to be completed by FY 2040.
D&D Work May Have to Compete With Major Cleanup Sites Once Fund is Empty
Once the fund is empty, D&D work at Oak Ridge, Portsmouth and Paducah would likely have to compete with DOE’s set of major cleanup sites, including Hanford, Idaho and Savannah River, for funding. For years, the Department has sought to have Congress reauthorize both federal and industry contributions to the fund with little success, with the U.S. nuclear industry strongly opposed to new industry contributions. This year, though, lawmakers did approve a new federal payment into the fund of $463 million as part of the FY 2015 omnibus appropriations measure.
