The Department of Energy intends to more than double funding in fiscal 2018 for work on the new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to the detailed budget justification released this week for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.

Airflow at the transuranic waste storage mine was reduced drastically to 60,000 cubic feet per minute in the wake of the February 2014 radiation release that closed WIPP for nearly three years. The site reopened last December and in April began accepting waste shipments from other DOE locations.

While temporary systems were subsequently installed, the permanent system will be needed to increase airflow to sufficient levels – planned up to 540,000 cubic feet per minute – to allow WIPP to simultaneously carry out waste emplacement and underground maintenance and mining operations.

The Trump administration’s budget would provide $65.6 million for construction for the budget year beginning Oct. 1: $46 million for the safety-significant confinement ventilation system and $19.6 million for a new exhaust shaft. That compares to roughly $30.5 million in total in both the enacted fiscal 2016 budget and fiscal 2017 continuing resolution that was still in place as the new budget was being developed, according to the DOE EM budget plan.

Preliminary work on the permanent ventilation system began in July 2016. An update on the project was not immediately available: WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership did not respond to a request for information Wednesday, while DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office referred questions to department headquarters.

In total, WIPP would receive about $323 million in fiscal 2018 if Congress accepts DOE’s spending proposal. However, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said in May he would seek additional funding for the site.

The Office of Environmental Management as a whole would receive $6.5 billion for cleanup of the agency’s nuclear weapons complex, a 1 percent tick up from its funding in the fiscal 2017 omnibus appropriations bill signed in May.

The DOE EM budget justification was released about three weeks after corresponding documents for other agency branches following the administration’s May 23 spending plan rollout.