The Washington state congressional delegation wrote to President Joe Biden last week, urging more federal funding for the Hanford Site in fiscal 2024 as the former plutonium production facility starts turning low-level radioactive tank waste into glass.
The DOE and Bechtel are targeting the startup of the Direct-Feed-Low-Activity-Waste Facility at the Waste Treatment Plant by December 2023. A federal court has granted the parties permission to slip into the following calendar year, due to time lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As you know, this year marks the beginning of a very important milestone in cleanup at the site — the successful launch of the Tank Side Cesium Removal system,” which is pretreating waste prior to startup of the vitrification plant, according to the Oct. 27 letter.
“While significant cleanup progress has been made over the years, it is of the utmost importance that the federal government fund cleanup efforts at adequate levels for both Richland Operations and the Office of River Protection and with changing needs in mind,” according to the letter.
In fiscal 2022 congress appropriated about $2.6 billion combined for the two Hanford offices. The Biden White House and the House of Representatives would keep it roughly at that same level in fiscal 2023, although a Senate Appropriations Committee proposal would raise funding to $2.7 billion.
Until mid-December at least, Hanford and other DOE Office of Environmental Management sites continue to be funded at fiscal 2022 levels under a continuing resolution passed by Congress.
In August, governors of Oregon and Washington requested that Hanford funding rise to more than $3.7 billion starting in fiscal 2024.
Funding should increase as design, engineering, and construction of the High-Level Waste Facility is added to the mission scope, the members of congress said in the latest letter. The document is signed by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the nuclear cleanup site, Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats, as well as the other members of the Washington state congressional delegation.
Newhouse and Murry are members of the Appropriations Committee in the House and Senate respectively. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) is also on House Appropriations but she lost to another Republican in a primary and her term will end in January.
