With the House passing a defense policy bill laden with non-nuclear amendments, this week’s Senate Armed Services Committee draft of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act would allow the Department of Energy to spend up to $7.1 billion on Defense Environmental cleanup and also calls for studies into issues at big nuclear weapons cleanup sites.
Defense Environmental cleanup accounts for most of the funding for DOE’s $8.3-billion Office of Environmental Management and $7.1 billion is roughly equal to what President Joe Biden (D) requested for fiscal 2024, which begins Oct. 1. Congress appropriated just over $7 billion for Defense Environmental spending in fiscal 2023.
The Senate panel unveiled its version of the annual defense bill on Tuesday. The NDAA sets spending limits and policy for defense programs.
The House of Representatives Friday reportedly passed its version of the NDAA, laden with GOP-sponsored amendments restricting abortion access and rolling back White House diversity measures, by a 219-to-210 vote.
Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) proposal would allow the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) up to $47 million for fiscal 2024, level with the White House request and what a House Armed Services Committee NDAA bill proposed for the safety watchdog. The House Appropriations Committee in its spending bill proposed $45 million, more than the $41 million congressional appropriated for fiscal 2023.
The Senate Armed Services used the defense policy bill to instruct the U.S. comptroller general, the head of the Government Accountability Office, to examine the progress on billions of dollars’ worth of nuclear cleanup tasks. In each case, the panel set deadlines for briefing the Senate and House Armed Services panels followed up by a written report at some point.
For instance, the panel wants:
- A briefing about whether DOE “contractor assurance” systems pass muster with federal requirements should occur by April 1, 2024. The committee said 80% of DOE spending goes toward paying contractors.
- An examination of the DOE system of contractor evaluations. The Government Accountability Office should brief the committees by May 1, the bill says.
- A report on grouting and other ways to reduce the amount of tank waste to be treated as high-level radioactive waste at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington, DOE Environmental Management’s most costly project. The panel said congressional defense committees should be briefed by April 1.
- A briefing about the Environmental Management office’s planned cleanup of excess National Nuclear Security Administration structures. The office is supposed to take responsibility for the weapons agency’s dilapidated structures in 2025 and the armed services panels want a briefing by March 1, 2024. In November 2021, DOE said there are 1,077 excess facilities awaiting final disposition at a potential cost of $14.7 billion, according to the Senate committee’s NDAA.
- A briefing, by April 1, on the status of mercury cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. According to the NDAA bill report, the Senate Armed Services Committee wants information on mercury remediation challenges at the DOE property and options for disposal.
