Proposed Senate budget would retain most PNNL, Hanford jobs

A proposed Senate budget for the Department of Energy largely rejects cuts proposed by the Trump administration for cleanup at the Hanford nuclear reservation and research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.

The Tri-City Development Council had estimated that the administration’s proposed budget would cost 700 jobs at Hanford and 1,000 jobs at PNNL.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., came through again on Hanford cleanup, getting $196 million added to the budget the Trump administration had proposed for the nuclear reservation.

The Senate version of the Hanford budget, approved Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, would increase the Hanford budget to close to $2.5 billion for the next fiscal year, if money for security and cybersecurity is included.

The budget also significantly restored the administration’s proposed funding cuts to scientific research important to PNNL, according to Murray’s staff.

“Assuming these numbers prevail in the conference with the House, PNNL will likely be able to continue their important work and Hanford cleanup can continue with focus on risks along the Columbia River, in the tank farms and at (the vitrification plant),” said Carl Adrian, chief executive of the Tri-City Development Council.

With the help of Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and other Hanford cleanup supporters in the House earlier this month, the House version of the Hanford budget would add $54 million to the number proposed by the Trump administration. A conference committee will reconcile the House and Senate numbers.

The Senate version of the Department of Energy budget would “ almost eliminate the risk of significant job cuts predicted earlier,” Adrian said.

The proposed Senate budget also would prevent the president’s proposal to privatize the transmission system of the Bonneville Power Administration — a proposal widely criticized in the Northwest, where electricity customers paid for the infrastructure proposed to be sold off.

“I’m very encouraged to see my Senate colleagues join me today in rejecting President Trump’s proposed budget, which was short-sighted and in no way reflected the true needs of the Hanford cleanup mission,” Murray said.

The Senate budget would include nearly $1.6 billion for the Hanford Office of River Protection and $826 million for the Richland Operations Office, not including about $82 million that would cover security.

The Office of River Protection is responsible for underground tanks holding 56 million gallons of radioactive waste and the vitrification plant being built at a cost expected to exceed $17 billion to treat the waste. The Richland Operations Office is responsible for sitewide operations and all other environmental cleanup, including groundwater, obsolete buildings and waste sites.

The Senate budget would add $86 million to the administration’s proposal for the Office of River Protection, which already was about $5 million above current spending.

It would increase spending for the two vitrification plant facilities that would handle high-level radioactive waste, helping make progress on having them fully operating by a court-enforced deadline of 2036.

Some $55 million more would be available to resolve technical issues related to high-level radioactive waste at the Pretreatment Plant and $25 million would be added to advance work at the High Level Waste Facility, where technical issues have slowed progress.

In addition, $5.6 million would be added to bring the budget for the tank farms to $719 million in fiscal 2018.

At the Richland Operations Office, $110 million would be added to bring spending, not including security costs, to $826 million. That compares to an administration request of $716 million and current spending of about $840 million, according to information from Murray’s staff.

The $110 million added back into the proposed budget by the Senate committee would go to three projects.

It would continue work to clean up a highly radioactive spill beneath the 324 Building, which is near both Richland and the Columbia River.

It would pay for risk reduction work as Hanford officials take a look at all of the site’s aging infrastructure and waste sites, following the May 9 discovery that a 1950s tunnel storing radioactive waste had partially collapsed.

It also would allow more work to be done at the K West Basin, where highly radioactive sludge is stored in underwater containers.

The proposed increase would not only keep work on track to move the sludge out of the basin, but would allow work to remove contaminated filters and to do the characterization work needed to make a decision on how to clean up the concrete basin after the sludge is removed.

The additional money would help reduce overhead costs at the K West Basin, with the goal of freeing up more money for actual environmental cleanup.

PNNL scientists and engineers draw money from a wide variety of federal and other programs to accumulate a budget that this year is about $950 million.

The Senate budget proposal for fiscal 2018 would restore proposed cuts to some key research programs that have traditionally paid for some PNNL work.

The administration had proposed $636 million, a cut of nearly $1.5 billion, to the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The Senate would set the budget at $1.9 billion.

Rather than cut the current budget of $230 million for the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability to $120 million as the administration proposed, the Senate budget would provide $213 million.

The DOE Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research program would have current funding of $612 million increased to $633 million. The administration had proposed a cut of $264 million.

The money pays for scientific user facilities, including the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility, both on the Richland PNNL campus. They have state-of-the-art research equipment that is used by 1,650 researchers from around the world annually.

“I am certain because of her (Murray’s) work, jobs will be saved in the Tri-Cities,” Adrian said. “We know Congressman Newhouse will be working closely with Sen. Murray on the final budget. We sincerely appreciate his and Sen. Cantwell’s continued support as well.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2017 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Proposed Senate budget would retain most PNNL, Hanford jobs."