The Joe Biden administration is requesting nuclear legacy cleanup spending of $332 in fiscal 2023 for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a big jump from the $275 million in the final appropriation for fiscal 2022, passed only a few weeks ago.
The $275 million in the current fiscal year excludes a separate $17-million line item for decommissioning and demolition of excess facilities at Los Alamos.
According to the budget in brief released this week, interim steps to control migration of a hexavalent chromium plume beneath Mortandad and Sandia Canyons will continue as the agency seeks a longer-lasting solution, according to the document released Tuesday. The DOE and its cleanup contractor will continue retrieval and repackaging of below-grade transuranic waste from Area G.
“Consistent with the priorities established with the New Mexico Environment Department in the 2016 Consent Order, cleanup activities will continue to focus on groundwater and soil remediation and surface water protection,” at Los Alamos, according to the budget request.
The DOE, the state and Nuclear Watch New Mexico recently agreed, in a settlement of litigation over the consent order, to speed up certain cleanup at Los Alamos.
Also, out West, the budget request would fund DOE Office of Environmental Management work at the Nevada National Security Site at $63 million, less than the $75.7 million the site received in the omnibus appropriation for fiscal 2022.
In California, the Energy Technology Engineering Center at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory has a requested budget of $26 million as it prepares for soil remediation, which is up from $21 million in the fiscal 2022 appropriation.
Back East in New York state, the West Valley Demonstration Project request is $94 million, according to the budget-in-brief, up from $88 million in the final omnibus bill.
Elsewhere in New York, the Separation Process Research Unit, where major remediation work has concluded, would see its budget remain flat at $15 million, according to the request.
With release of the White House’s $7.64-billion appropriation request for DOE’s Environmental Management office, the baton will now pass to lawmakers in the House and Senate. Congress had not yet scheduled the first of several necessary hearings on the DOE budget request as of Wednesday evening.
