Weapons Complex Vol. 26 No. 3
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Weapons Complex Monitor
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January 23, 2015

Rep. Newhouse Calls for Responsible Cleanup Funding Level in FY16 Budget

By Mike Nartker

Staff Reports
WC Monitor
1/23/2015

New Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) asked President Barack Obama this week to include a responsible level of funding for Department of Energy environmental management work in his budget request to Congress for Fiscal Year 2016. If DOE cleanup budgets continue to dwindle, more cleanup work will be postponed, leading to higher costs to taxpayers and more lawsuits and fines over missed legal deadlines, Newhouse said in a letter to the president. There is speculation that the administration’s budget request, expected to be released in early February, could include a substantial cut in funding for the DOE Richland Operations Office at Hanford, he said. “Such a cut would be detrimental to cleanup progress and would diminish the ability of the Department of Energy to meet the legal commitments that govern the Richland Operations Office,” Newhouse said. Getting sludge moved out of underwater storage at the K West Basin and away from the Columbia River and finishing river corridor cleanup are among the Richland Operations Office responsibilities.

DOE already is accruing fines at the rate of $10,000 a week after missing a Tri-Party Agreement milestone to start removing sludge from the basin at the end of September, Newhouse pointed out in his letter. He toured Hanford shortly before taking office and was impressed by the progress being made under both the Richland Operations Office and the Office of River Protection, he said. “In particular, work associated with the River Corridor Closure project is so very near completion and is truly among the brightest success stories of the entire (DOE environmental management) complex,” he said. DOE expects to have most cleanup in the river corridor completed this year. But some difficult work is expected to remain, including cleaning up a spill of high-level radioactive waste under the 324 Building just north of Richland and the high-risk 618-10 and 11 waste burial grounds.

Office of River Protection projects also require, at a minimum, steady and stable budgets for building the Waste Treatment Plant and to allow ongoing retrieval of waste from single-shell tanks, to implement of a plan to protect workers from chemical vapors and to make good on DOE’s commitment to empty Tank AY-102, Newhouse said. The double-shell tank is leaking waste from its inner shell. An ongoing lawsuit brought by the state over court-enforced consent decree milestones for Office of River Protection work and technical issues that have slowed work on the vitrification plant make formulating a workable budget challenging, Newhouse said. But he is ready to work throughout the federal budget cycle as more information is provided by DOE and the courts for Office of River Protection projects, he said. “While many activities of the federal government are not legally required, cleanup of our nation’s defense nuclear waste is not optional,” Newhouse said. Newhouse was elected to replace retired Rep. Doc Hastings.

 

 

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NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.

Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮

We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.

Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp

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