Chris Schneidmiller
NS&D Monitor
9/11/2015
SUMMERLIN, Nev. – Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday expressed optimism that the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) can be completed by the target date of 2025. The UPF is part of broader plans for the modernization of the Y-12, and is intended to replace the existing 9212 plant with a sophisticated, centralized facility for processing weapon-grade uranium.
Following the recommendations of a Red Team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason, Y-12 site manager Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) has moved away from plans to effectively house UPF in one large building and toward plans centered around a grouping of three buildings. “I can tell you all this: The new contractor is working daily to make sure that the new design will work. It’s part of a campus approach as opposed to a big-box approach. I think this is a national priority, and again, we’re going to work toward that 2025 deadline,” Fleischmann, whose district encompasses Y-12, said in a video presentation to the 2015 ExchangeMonitor RadWaste Summit here.
Fleischmann commended CNS’ work as Y-12 manager and its efforts on the ongoing UPF redesign. “This is going to be a state-of-the-art facility … and it’s critical that we get it done.” He repeatedly emphasized the need to update Y-12 as a whole, calling the decades-old Tennessee nuclear-weapon support complex “an antiquated facility.”
While the National Nuclear Security Administration has highlighted important milestones toward developing the site on time and on budget (estimated at about $6.5 billion), it has been scrutinized closely in Washington, D.C., and beyond. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has argued that UPF and other large-scale nuclear builds must not stretch beyond their projected budgets or timelines, while the watchdog Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance recently claimed UPF could ultimately cost more than $10 billion.
Separately, Fleischmann reaffirmed his belief that the Department of Energy must prioritize resuming storage operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which were suspended following a fire and subsequent radiation leak in February 2014. Site manager Nuclear Waste Partnership has submitted a revised plan for reopening WIPP to the department. While the plan is still being reviewed, it almost certainly includes a budget plan that exceeds the $242 million projected last year and sets a reopening date well beyond the earlier anticipated date of March 2016. Until then, transuranic waste from other nuclear sites cannot be transported to the underground facility in New Mexico.
The Department of Energy requested $248 million for WIPP operations in fiscal 2016, which begins on Oct. 1. House appropriators, though, backed a spending bill that would provide $285.8 million.
“WIPP needs more money to be fixed, there’s no question about that,” Fleischmann said, but he said such a funding boost would not be expected if Congress passes a continuing budget resolution for fiscal 2016 rather than a full federal spending plan that provides funding for developing needs. “If you’re a betting person, the easiest, safest bet is probably a continuing resolution,” the lawmaker said.
Funding levels will also be key to sustaining assertive efforts to clean up contamination at legacy nuclear-weapon sites across the country, according to Fleischmann, co-chairman of the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus. He urged participants at the summit to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill. “We need to make sure that Congress, both our friends in the House and the Senate, and the administration, understands just how important it is to clean up these sites” to free communities from hazardous nuclear and radiological wastes and reclaim land for economic development, he said.
Fleischmann also asserted that supporters of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada have good cause to believe the facility will one day move forward. The Obama administration halted work on the underground site intended to store 70,000 metric tons of nuclear waste amid heavy opposition from officials in Nevada, led by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). DOE, under Secretary Ernest Moniz, instead is advancing plans for separate repositories for defense and commercial waste.
However, Fleischmann said a general climate of support for resuming the Yucca project and favorable court rulings – which have included a 2013 federal appeals court order that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decide whether to issue a permit for Yucca – suggest “ultimately I think we will go forward.” He said there is still greater enthusiasm among House appropriator than in the Senate to provide funds for the project, making no mention of Reid’s looming retirement.
