Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) on Thursday expressed dismay at the dramatically reduced level of money the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state would receive under the White House latest budget request.
The agency has a moral and legal obligation to clean up 56 million gallons of liquid waste, generated by decades of plutonium production for the U.S. nuclear arsenal and left in “temporary” tanks, Newhouse told Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.
“I was truly disappointed to see proposed cuts of over $700 million” for Hanford cleanup in fiscal 2021 under DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Newhouse said during a hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee. The lawmaker’s 4th Congressional District covers Hanford.
This was Brouillette’s first hearing to defend his agency’s $35.4 billion spending plan for the budget year beginning Oct. 1.
The request calls for funding of roughly $1.9 billion combined for Hanford’s two operating offices, down from more than $2.6 billion enacted by Congress in fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30. Across the weapons complex, the administration seeks a total of $6.1 billion for DOE Environmental Management, compared to about $7.5 billion appropriated for fiscal 2020.
“Yes. I do believe the president’s current budget allows us to meet our moral obligations,” Brouillette said. Congress has been “extremely generous” to the nuclear cleanup program in recent years. It has resulted in carry-over funding at places like Hanford, he added. The energy secretary did not cite specific carryover figures.
There is sufficient funding in President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for Hanford to ensure that Bechtel’s Waste Treatment Plant stays on track to start converting low-activity waste into glass by 2023, Brouillette said. Likewise, there is money to meet remediation targets set by the Tri-Party Agreement between the state, DOE, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he added.
The Richland Operations Office at Hanford’s budget would drop from more than $900 million in fiscal 2020 to less than $600 million in fiscal 2021. At Richland, the Central Plateau Remediation budget would fall from more than $650 million in 2020 to just under $500 million. River Corridor cleanup would be slashed from $236 million to $55 million.
The Office of River Protection budget would go from $1.6 billion in fiscal 2020 to less than $1.3 billion under the White House request. Waste tank farm activities would drop from $775 million to less than $600 million, while funding for the Waste Treatment Plant direct feed low-activity waste system would also decline form $776 million to about $610 million. It appears the total WTP funding also dwindles from $816 million to $610 million.
Newhouse said projects such as remediation of contamination under Hanford’s 324 Building, also known the Chemical Materials Engineering Laboratory, would be slowed without more money. The budget request document says the reduced River Corridor funding reflects the planned completion of interim structural stabilization of the building.
Newhouse and other members of Washington state’s congressional delegation will undoubtedly seek to add funding for Hanford cleanup as Energy Department budget bills are readied on Capitol Hill. Their counterparts in states with other nuclear cleanup sites are sure to do the same, pushing the Environmental Management up from the requested $6.1 billion.
Despite Cuts, Critical Nuclear Work Continues, DOE Says
Generally speaking, while the Energy Department is seeking less funding, weapons complex projects on the whole benefitted from fat budgets in recent times, according to Brouillette’s testimony.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., would have spending trimmed roughly $14 million from almost $404 million in fiscal 2020 to $390 million in 2021. Construction of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System is nearing its end and its line item is going from $58 million in 2020 to zero in the 2021 request. The energy secretary said the ventilation project could begin operation within 15 months.
Remediation spending for the Idaho National Laboratory would drop $175 million from $446 million enacted in 2020 to $271 million in fiscal 2021. Almost all of the reduction falls within the Cleanup and Waste Disposition line item. Within the past year, the agency finished the 15-year effort to treat all the stored debris TRU from the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) and prepare it for eventual disposal at WIPP, according to the document. Funds received during fiscal 2020 will be tapped to help start operations of the long-awaited Integrated Waste Treatment Unit in 2021. The facility, which didn’t work as planned after construction finished in 2012, is designed to convert 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid radioactive waste into a stable solid form.
The Paducah Site in Kentucky would get nicked by $32 million, from $314 million in 2020 to $282 million under the 2021 budget request. The request includes money for dismantling three electric power switchyards.
The Portsmouth Site in Ohio would be trimmed by $2 million, from $493 million to $491 million. The budget continues construction of an On-Site Disposal Facility, which would receive debris waste from demolition of three process buildings used at the former uranium enrichment plant. Demolition of the first building would start by the end of this calendar year.
Cleanup funding at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico would be slashed by $100 million, from $220 million in the enacted budget to $120 million in the 2021 budget request. During the past year, DOE successfully implemented a pump-and-treat system as an interim means to contain a groundwater hexavalent chromium plume. The fiscal 2021 proposal includes money to retrieve and process of below-grade transuranic waste at LANL Area G and start shipping it to WIPP.
At some of the smaller EM sites, the budget request calls for $15 million at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) in upstate New York, which is the same as the enacted level for 2020. Also in New York, the West Valley Demonstration Project budget would increase $13 million from the 2020 enacted level of $79 million to $92 million.
In California, funding for the Energy Technology Engineering Center at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory would decrease from $18 million to $11 million. In Utah, money for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project would rise from $45 million enacted for the current fiscal year to almost $48 million in fiscal 2021.
