U.S. Senate proposal rejects Trump’s $748 million budget cuts for Hanford

The U.S. Senate has joined the House in rejecting a deep cut to Hanford spending proposed by the Trump administration.

A Senate proposal that would provide $748 million more in annual spending than proposed in the Trump administration’s budget for fiscal year 2021 for the Hanford nuclear reservation has been released by a subcommittee.

The Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee proposes a budget of nearly $2.6 billion for the nuclear reservation, where environmental cleanup is underway after the site produced plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program during World War II and the Cold War.

The budget proposal would be $43 million more than current spending.

At the level proposed by the administration, the work to meet legally binding Tri-Party Agreement deadlines could be missed, “threatening high-risk cleanup projects near the city of Richland, Washington, and the economically and environmentally important Columbia River,” the Senate subcommittee budget proposal explanation said.

“The Senate’s funding levels would allow a lot of very important work to happen at both Hanford and PNNL, and once again we thank Sen. Murray and Sen. Cantwell for their tremendous support,” said David Reeploeg, Tri-City Development Council vice president for federal programs.

This was the fourth year that the Trump administration’s budget request was woefully inadequate for Hanford cleanup, according to the staff of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Although the Obama administration also proposed Hanford budget cuts, the cuts were more modest. For Fiscal 2017 it proposed a cut in Hanford spending of a little more than $100 million.

“Regardless of the administration, I won’t stop fighting to ensure the federal government is honoring its moral and legal obligation to Hanford cleanup, and this year’s spending bill reflects the Senate’s bipartisan commitment to seeing this critical priority through,” Murray said.

Fiscal year 2021 began at the start of this month, but Congress and President Trump approved federal spending to continue at fiscal year 2020 levels until at least Dec. 11.

Tri-Cities area officials are hopeful that by then Congress will approve a Department of Energy spending bill as part of an omnibus bill that packages spending for several departments.

The House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee approved a Hanford spending bill in July that also rejected deep cuts to Hanford spending proposed by the administration and is similar to the Senate proposal.

“As Congress begins negotiations on a possible omnibus spending bill for the remainder of the fiscal year we will be sharing our priorities with the (Washington congressional) delegation, but it’s really good to know that we have strong numbers to start with in both the House and Senate bills,” Reeploeg said.

Senate budget proposal

The proposed Senate budget for Hanford includes $1.6 billion for the Hanford Office of River Protection, which oversees 56 million gallons of radioactive waste held in underground tanks, some of them prone to leaking, and the $17 billion vitrification plant being built to treat the waste for permanent disposal.

The proposed spending is $29 million more than current spending and $378 million more than requested by the administration.

The Hanford Richland Operations Office, responsible for all other Hanford cleanup and overall operation of the 580-square-mile site, would receive $926 million.

That is $14 million over current spending and $370 million more than requested by the administration.

The Senate document explaining its spending proposal said that the Department of Energy would be barred from using any of the Richland Operations Office budget for tank waste work.

DOE is focused on meeting a deadline set by a federal judge that requires the Hanford vitrification plant to start treating some of the tank waste for disposal by the end of 2023.

The Senate document said the Richland Operations Office needed more money to continue cleanup of a high-level radioactive waste spill beneath the 324 Building, which is just north of Richland and near the Columbia River, and to move capsules of radioactive cesium and strontium out of underwater storage.

The pool where they are held is aging and could be at risk of releasing radioactive waste into the environment in a severe earthquake.