The House Appropriations Committee proposed a marginal increase for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, to $7.8 billion from the $7.6 in 2021, as part of a 2022 spending bill sent to the House floor Friday.
The full committee advanced the energy and water spending package on a 33-to-24 vote party line vote, setting the stage for a floor vote that had not been scheduled at deadline. Politico reported this week that the full House could vote on the energy and water legislation before August as part of a multi-bill minibus.
With Friday’s committee vote, House appropriators have rejected the Joe Biden administration’s proposed haircut for the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and the Idaho National Laboratory.
“The recommendation continues to fund a balanced approach that sustains the momentum of ongoing cleanup activities more consistently across all Department cleanup sites,” reads the detailed bill report accompanying the legislation
Other than some language in a non-controversial manager’s amendment about the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility at the Hanford Site, none of the amendments offered at Friday’s mark up touched on defense nuclear waste.
The managers’ package would tap $2.5 million provided in the fiscal year 2021 Act to develop plans for the permanent removal of radioactive capsules from the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility, where capsules are being moved to dry from wet storage.
“The evaluation shall include, at minimum, the specific actions necessary to prepare capsules for removal and transportation; the Department’s history with current and past transfer agreements, including the financial structure of those agreements; and the costs, benefits, and risks to the federal government of future removal actions,” reads the amendment, which was adopted by voice vote.
“I’m grateful this language is there to build upon the FY 2021 provision to evaluate potential removal of waste capsule efforts,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district includes the Hanford Site.
Meanwhile, DOE’s Defense Environmental Cleanup account, the largest chunk of spending in the agency’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), would receive $6.6 billion or $166 million more than the fiscal 2021 level. While the Biden team asked for $6.8-billion for this line item, $415 million of the amount would be transferred to shore up a fund for remediating uranium enrichment plants in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.
Non-Defense Cleanup would be up $334 million, up $14.7 million over the current level while the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund, would receive $831 million, down nearly $10 million from the current level according to a summary from the subcommittee.
Bill’s Report Weighs in on Issues at Hanford, Elsewhere
The report for the 2022 energy and water appropriation bill frets over the daunting life cycle cost of Hanford cleanup, pegged at anywhere from $322 billion to $677 billion, with final cleanup of the former plutonium production complex not expected until 2079.
With this in mind, DOE “is encouraged to seriously consider all cleanup options that have the potential to reduce costs and safely expedite cleanup,” appropriators wrote in their bill report.
At the same time, DOE should keep its eye on the startup of direct feed low-activity waste at Hanford by the end of 2023, according to the report. The bill devotes $50 million towards commissioning of the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment Plant, which is consistent with both fiscal 2021 and the DOE request.
The committee bill would keep Hanford’s Office of River Protection funding at the fiscal 2021 level of more than $1.64 billion, or $104 million more than the DOE’s request. The Richland Operations Office would receive about $927 million, relatively flat with the $926 million enacted for the current fiscal year and the administration proposal.
Cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory under the bill would be level-funded at the fiscal 2021 mark of $433.5 million, up nearly $64 million from the DOE request.
Environmental funding at the Oak Ridge Site would stay flat with the current fiscal year level of $475 million, up $51 million from the Biden request.
The Savannah River Site in South Carolina would land about $1.59 billion in Environmental Management funds for the coming budget year, an increase of roughly $56 million over fiscal 2021 and $6 million more than the DOE request. The spending plan continues to support construction of new saltstone disposal units at Savannah River.
Like the DOE request, the House bill sets Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) funding at $430.4 million for the new budget year, up $17 million from fiscal 2021. Following the administration’s lead, the committee proposes $55 million in fiscal 2022 toward construction of the Safety Significant Confine Ventilation System, which should about triple underground airflow. That is $20 million more than the project’s fiscal 2021 construction line item.
The committee also reminded DOE the lawmakers are still owed a briefing on infrastructure projects at WIPP, such as the ventilation project. Last year’s budget bill directed the agency to provide the committee with an update on the status of WIPP construction projects.
“The Committee is still awaiting this briefing, and the Department is directed to provide the briefing not later than 15 days after enactment of this Act,” reads the bill report.
Meanwhile, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico would receive cleanup spending of $275 million, the same as the DOE request and $49 million more than the fiscal 2021 level. The Environmental Management office continues work to contain an underground chromium plume and also remediate recently-discovered contamination on a public road outside the laboratory property.
Elsewhere, the Committee bill would increase cleanup spending at the Nevada National Security Site to $75 million starting Oct.1, a $15 million increase from both the 2021 level and the Biden administration request.
Payments in Lieu of Taxes Are Back
In another noteworthy committee development, House appropriators provided Hanford’s Richland Office and the Savannah River Site with millions more than the White House request for “community and regulatory support” — the line item that includes payments in lieu of taxes for localities outside the fence of DOE nuclear reservations. In Congressional hearings since the May budget request, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was rebuked for curtailing such community support.
The community support line item was increased to more than $10 million for Hanford, nearly $1.6 million more than the fiscal 2021 level and nearly double the Biden request. At Savannah River, the same line item is now back to the fiscal 2021 level of $11.5 million — DOE had requested only half of that for fiscal 2022.
The payments in lieu of taxes for Savannah River are now “whole,” said Rick McLeod, who heads the Savannah River Site Community Reuse Organization, in a Thursday email reply to Weapons Complex Monitor.
Along with payments in lieu of taxes, the community line item also includes support for state regulators and local site advisory boards, said Seth Kirshenberg, executive director of the Energy Communities Alliance, in a Thursday email.