DOE LOOKING AT FLAT FUNDING LEVEL OF $740M FOR HANFORD VIT PLANT

The Hanford Waste Treatment Plant would be funded at an annual level of $740 million going forward under a new approach close to being finalized within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, WC Monitor has learned. The impacts of the new funding profile on the project remain unclear, but a DOE review conducted on the WTP this summer found that the project could be at risk for cost and schedule increases if its funding profile was changed. The new funding approach for the WTP is likely to be unveiled when the White House submits its Fiscal Year 2013 budget request to Congress early next month.

Initially, the WTP was intended to be funded at an annual funding level of $690 million through completion in late 2019. As part of an effort to ensure that the project can be completed on cost-and-schedule, though, DOE moved to seek increased amounts of annual funding in the next few years, with funding needs to decrease as the project draws closer to completion. DOE has been forced to come up with a new funding approach for the project in response to opposition from lawmakers. As part of the modified funding approach, DOE had sought $840 million for the WTP in Fiscal Year 2012—a request that was rejected by Congress, which instead kept the project at its current funding level of $740 million.