House lawmakers grilled Department of Energy officials Friday on oversight issues related to the February 2014 radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant at a hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “WIPP has been shut down and the Department has embarked on remediation, training, and rebuilding that will cost taxpayers an estimated $240 million just to restart limited operations next year. All told, it may ultimately cost more than $500 million before full operations are estimated to commence in 2018,” Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said.
The panel’s hearing marks the first in Congress on the topic since the 2014 events at WIPP shut down the facility. Murphy said that the subcommittee plans to hold follow-up hearings on the issue. “We recognize that these problems have gone on for too long, we want to continue to work with you and we’d like to have further hearings on this in the future,” he told DOE officials at the hearing. DOE acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Mark Whitney noted that investigations into the incidents have deemed that they were “preventable,” and said that the final price tag for recovery of the facility is still not completely certain.
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