Hanford made it through the budget cuts for the current fiscal year mostly unscathed as the Department of Energy announced Thursday how it would spread reductions across the DOE environmental cleanup complex.
It should mean no additional contractor employee layoffs at the Hanford nuclear reservation beyond those already announced as the last federal economic stimulus money is spent.
"This is a big win at a time when budget wins are hard to come by," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in a statement. "It will save jobs that support Hanford workers and their families and will help keep us on track to meet cleanup goals."
With no federal budget passed for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, Congress approved a continuing resolution this spring that cut DOE cleanup spending by $380 million from the amount the Obama administration had proposed for the year.
Then DOE, under pressure from Congress, decided which projects across its complex would receive less money.
The DOE Hanford Office of River Protection, which is responsible for 53 million gallons of radioactive waste and the vitrification plant being built to treat the waste, will have $1.136 billion to spend. That's down about $22 million from the administration's request.
The DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office, which is responsible for the rest of environmental cleanup at the nuclear reservation, will receive $1.039 billion, which is down about $3 million from the 2011 administration request.
In contrast, the Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Savannah River, S.C., sites, each with much smaller annual budgets than Hanford, saw reductions of about $50 million each.
The Hanford numbers "look way better than we expected," said Gary Petersen, vice president of Hanford programs for the Tri-City Development Council.
He gave much of the credit to Murray, who has pushed for budgets that will cover legal obligations for environmental cleanup, not only at Hanford but also across the DOE complex.
"Maintaining adequate and consistent funding levels for cleanup is a constant fight in Congress, but it's one I'm glad to take on because of the sacrifices of the Tri-Cities community," Murray said.
Hanford will be able to continue its momentum on environmental cleanup along the Columbia River, at the Plutonium Finishing Plant in central Hanford and on projects to clean up contaminated ground water, said Matt McCormick, manager of the DOE Richland Operations Office.
The office will be able to meet all of its legally binding Tri-Party Agreement deadlines this year, he said.
The strong budget "is a testament to Hanford getting work done safely and showing value to the taxpayer," he said.
The DOE Office of River Protection's highest priority with the fiscal 2011 continuing resolution will be to meet legal obligations for cleanup, which it is on track to do, said DOE spokesman Erik Olds.
The office's budget is split between about $740 million for the vitrification plant and about $396 million for the tank farms.
DOE had based construction and commissioning planning at the vit plant, which will begin treating waste in 2019, on a steady annual budget of $690 million. But under a revised plan, some spending is being moved to peak work years, including this year. Although that change was included in the administration's 2011 budget proposal, it could have been one place for DOE to make up part of the continuing resolution reduction.
Instead, the additional money will come as specialized equipment and interior systems such as piping are being installed in some facilities of the $12.2 billion plant.
The timing is optimal because purchasing of that equipment and components of the systems can be done when prices are some of the lowest they have been in years, Olds said.
At the tank farms, the Office of River Protection will have less to spend than proposed in the administration's budget for fiscal 2011.
However, money has been spent cautiously so far this year because of the budget uncertainty, Olds said. Some work to prepare to feed waste from the tank farms to the vit plant was delayed and some planned upgrades at the tank farms were slowed, he said. DOE also spread out work with federal economic stimulus money to avoid peaks and valleys in the number of workers needed.
The majority of the $1.96 billion in federal economic stimulus money for Hanford went to Richland Operations Office projects. As that money is spent, as required by the end of September, about 1,650 positions will be cut.
If Hanford had also seen a larger share of the budget cutbacks in the continuing resolution, additional layoffs would have been needed by September's end.
