The Department of Energy late Friday evening submitted its long-anticipated request to reprogram funds among cleanup projects to Capitol Hill for approval. The request is necessary to address budgetary issues at a number of sites resulting from the Continuing Resolution and sequestration and to help prevent further layoffs and other workforce impacts. Overall, the requests seeks to move a total of $273.5 million in defense environmental cleanup funds and $23 million in uranium enrichment D&D funding, according to a copy obtained by WC Monitor. “Without timely approval of this reprogramming, the continuation of misaligned funds, in addition to a nearly $394 million reduction from the FY 2012 enacted level, will result in major programmatic impacts across the complex,” DOE Deputy Chief Financial Officer Alison Doone wrote in a May 3 letter to House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rodgers (R-Ky.)
The request looks to shift funds among projects at Hanford’s Office of River Protection, the Savannah River Site and Oak Ridge, as well as to move funds to cleanup activities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. At Hanford, the request looks to move approximately $48 million in funding currently aligned to the Waste Treatment Plant’s Pretreatment Facility to tank farms activities to help keep DOE on track to meet a Tri-Party Agreement milestone to complete waste retrieval activities at the C Tank Farm. At Savannah River, DOE is looking to shift approximately $80 million in funding from the Salt Waste Processing Facility project to a variety of other cleanup activities. “This reprogramming will allow H Canyon / HB-Line to process vulnerable spent nuclear fuel, and process Canadian liquid highly-enriched uranium. Funding is also included for preparatory work for future spent nuclear fuel processing if this activity is found to be cost effective,” the request says. “This reprogramming supports the continued receipt of Foreign Research Reactor / Domestic Research Reactor fuel. This reprogramming will also allow the site to complete remediation and certification of remaining legacy transuranic waste and meet soil and groundwater regulatory commitments.”
At Oak Ridge, the request would shift approximately $4.2 million to facility D&D activities from other cleanup work. According to DOE, the shift in funding is needed “to fully support the operation of the on-site landfill at a level that would avoid impacts to waste disposition activities for Recovery Act and base funded Decontamination and Decommissioning projects at the East Tennessee and Technology Park and Recovery Act projects at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12. The additional funding will also avoid impacts to the associated Federal Facility Agreement regulatory milestones.” In addition, DOE is looking to increase funding for cleanup activities at Los Alamos by $19 million by transferring funding from closure sites.