Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
9/4/2015
The reopening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should be the Department of Energy’s main nuclear waste cleanup concern, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) said recently. The transuranic waste repository has been closed to new shipments since a fire and subsequent radiation release in February 2014. DOE announced last month that the anticipated reopening date has been pushed back from March 2016 due to additions to the repair schedule at the New Mexico site, including mandatory “safety-related activities.”
Fleischmann, whose district includes the Oak Ridge cleanup site and the Y-12 National Security Complex sat down with RW Monitor on Aug. 27 to talk about his priorities as co-head of the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, as well as some of his thoughts on the budget, DOE’s cleanup progress, and interim storage.
As leader of the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, what areas of concern do you see the group addressing in the coming months/year? And what areas would you personally like to see addressed?
Well, one of the reasons I wanted to chair the Nuclear Cleanup Caucus was to make sure that we had a national spotlight on the necessity to cleanup these legacy sites. Before I came to Congress, and I represent the Oak Ridge area, I knew that Oak Ridge had a legacy waste issue, but I never realized until I got there and started working on [DOE Office of] Environmental Management that so many other communities around the country had legacy issues. I couldn’t be more excited about getting more members involved. We’ve totally altered the approach we take with the caucus in a very beneficial way. I’m very thankful to my predecessor, Doc Hastings, but what we’ve done in our first three meetings, and we’ve got our final meeting in September, is to invite everyone from every site to every meeting.
So instead of having just a specific focus, whether it’s an Idaho or Savannah River or Oak Ridge, we bring everybody in the room. It’s been incredible. We’ve had DOE folks. We’ve had contractors. We’ve had friends and competitors coming together. The attendance continues to grow, but our key mission is to get these legacy waste sites cleaned up all over the country.
Our principle concerns are always going to be funding. We are in rather tumultuous budgetary times. So I think the goal of the caucus is to have a heightened awareness on the need to clean up these legacy sites, but also to make sure the funds are available, and then, to make sure we get an equitable distribution across the sites to deal with the several needs in these communities.
Going off of that, how would you rate DOE’s overall nuclear cleanup effort? What would you say are its strengths? And what would you identify as its weaknesses?
On the strengths side, and let me give credit to Secretary Moniz in this regard and his undersecretaries, their heart is right. There is total agreement among all the parties that this needs to be a national priority and that is a national obligation that we fund the cleanup of these sites that were instrumental in not only winning World War II, but also winning the Cold War. I think we owe it to the citizens of the United States to clean up these dirty sites, get the land reclaimed and back to the local communities. So, in that regard, we are all on the same page.
Obviously, I represent Oak Ridge. We’ve got tremendous issues there, not only in terms of some buildings that have to come down, but mercury issues as well. We have legacy issues all across our campus. Each site is unique. I wouldn’t necessarily say there is a difference, but from the department’s standpoint, they got to address across the nation. You’ve got Hanford. You’ve got Savannah River. Los Alamos. You name it. Portsmouth. Paducah. You just keep kicking off the sites. Oak Ridge. But they have the arduous task of working to allocate those resources where they are needed, and that is difficult. Their heart is right.
But, if I could get one thing done right now quicker and more efficiently, it would be to get WIPP reopen. That problem has been out there. But other than that, I think they have done a good job.
DOE recently pushed back the reopening date for WIPP due to additions to the repair schedule, including mandatory “safety-related activities.” Does this raise any concern about DOE’s ability to get the facility up and running again? And what’s your reaction to that news?
Sure. Well, disappointment. There is no question that we had hoped that this would have been open in March or before. Let me go back a little bit. When the WIPP incident occurred, the very fact that it happened is upsetting. Now, because once that happened, we knew immediately that there were going to be delays, and basically, if you will, back up the shipments of waste, not only from Oak Ridge, but from around the country, that needs to go there. So, it has basically halted the process, and if I had my druthers, we would do it in the most cost-effective way and in the quickest way. It’s clear now that it is going to be much more expensive and it will take longer.
What that does is back up the process in terms of getting the waste there, and also takes dollars from the EM budget, which are critically important for the cleanup, and directs it to the WIPP facility to get it back up and running. I wish, in an ideal world, that it never happened. We could use those dollars that are so dearly needed, not only at Oak Ridge, but at other sites, and move forward with our mission.
The state of Tennessee, along with some stakeholder groups surrounding the Oak Ridge Reservation, have raised concerns over both the funding levels and timeline of the cleanup. Do you share any of these concerns?
We’ve had some tremendous success stories in Oak Ridge. [East Tennessee Technology Park], getting K-25 down, and the related buildings out there. That has gone really well – under budget, on time – so we had some really great successes. When you’ve got problems of the magnitude in depth that we have at Oak Ridge— mercury remediation, you have the buildings like Alpha-5, that not only have mercury problems, but they are still being used, in some way, to bring electricity to some of the facilities out there at Y-12. We have such a broad depth of problems. At ORNL, you have the 3019 building, which needs to be basically emptied out. So, we have so many needs.
Let me say this, I am pleased with the progress. The EM mission at Oak Ridge is going to take decades to remediate, so the quicker we address it and the best way we address it with financial resources and expertise, the better it will be. I would not say I share a frustration that the state has. I would say I share the same passion that the state and also the Department of Energy have in getting it cleaned up. That’s why I’m chairing the caucus. I want to see us clean this up nationwide. I think this will be great for the environment and great for the American people.
In terms of the budget, how do see that process working out in the coming months? Are we heading toward another continuing resolution? And do you have any idea how that would look, and how it would affect the cleanup program?
That’s an excellent question. I do not want a government shutdown – plain and simple. That is always out there. That would be a disaster. But let me say this, the problem with a CR is obviously you lose some of the funding that you might otherwise have, and then you have to hunt for anomalies for the specific sites. My ideal scenario would be an omnibus where the House and the Senate could get together, put things together, and hopefully the president would sign that.
Now, I’m an optimist. That would be the best scenario, and then we could continue to have the robust funding that is in the energy and water bill for EM. But, notwithstanding that, if you’re not going to get that, the fallback position would be the continuing resolution. Certainly, not optimum, but we want to keep the funds flowing for EM and for other critically important needs.
What would you put the likelihood of that happening? I know you said you were an optimist, but what would your realistic expectations be for what will happen come Oct. 1?
Let me say this, the reason I can’t give you a proper answer is I don’t know what the climate will be like when we get back in September. When we left, there so many different issues out there that Congress is going to have to deal with – debt ceiling, Iran, and the like. Maybe the members have had time in their districts and do what I did – go out and listen to their constituents – maybe they will come back with a renewed sense of the need to do a responsible and appropriate budget. That would be my hope. I will have a better feel when I land Sept. 8.
Switching gears a bit, DOE announced earlier this year that it intended to “decomingle” defense and commercial waste into separate geologic repositories. Do you support this decision?
I have not studied the actual depository plan. Let me say this, we need to get WIPP opened. We need to get Yucca open. We need to clean up and dispose of this waste in the best way possible. I don’t necessarily want to comment on the efficiency of going that route. I want to comment on basically making sure the resources are available so the contractors can do their job in a proper manner and make sure we have the sites available so we can get rid of the waste.
How supportive of interim storage are you? Is that something you could support going forward?
I think so. Ultimately, we have got to have a final place to go, but when you see the fact that waste is beginning to accumulate and the process gets stymied at different sites across the country, I think we can look at that as something that is done in a very safe and efficient manner. Of course, like anything, if you continue to move it, whether it’s a viable project or if it’s waste, the more you handle it and move it, the more costs you are going to incur. These dollars are tough to come by. I’m going to hope that together we can work as a nation to come up with the most cost-effective, swift, and safe way to dispose of our legacy waste.
Many have been critical of the DOE’s process of transferring excess facilities across the complex into the cleanup program. What do you see as key in that process moving forward? Do you have any problems with DOE’s approach? How would you like to see that process go?
There’s no question – take Alpha-5 and other facilities – and I’m not necessary being critical of the department, I’m desirous of getting these buildings that are in many cases antiquated and in many cases dirty, removed. They pose risks to citizens. They pose risk to workers. And they have got to be taken down. It’s a matter of resources. I’m sure the department would love to have these buildings removed all across the country. We have an abundance of them in Oak Ridge. They ultimately need to come down. It’s going to be costly, but again, it’s a matter of directing the resources to get these things down as soon as possible.
A recent GAO report found that the National Nuclear Security Administration’s $3.6 billion deferred maintenance backlog for its facilities is likely to grow in the coming years. Is this an issue that deserves equal or greater attention than some competing priorities?
It’s a concern. They are going to have to address it. There is a backlog there. I have enjoyed my working relationship with Gen. Klotz in NNSA. It’s as good of a relationship as I have with Secretary Moniz. Everybody has a job to perform, and that backlog is something they are going to have to deal with. We just want to work with them so they can get through it.
That’s all the questions I had prepared for you. Is there anything else you would like to address?
I just wanted to say that it has been a tremendous privilege to chair the Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, to bring it in a new direction, and to work with the tremendous amount of bipartisan support and effort, energy, and optimism that we have seen in the first three meetings. So, we look forward to our Sept. 30 meeting, which will be our final meeting of the year. But it continues to grow, and it’s something that I am very thankful that we are bringing this to the attention of the American people, not only in my district, but all across the country.
Rep. Fleischmann will also speak on DOE’s cleanup progress at the 2015 ExchangeMonitor RadWaste Summit, which is scheduled for Sept. 8-11 in Summerlin, Nev. The conference will include presentations from a host of government and industry speakers; registration and agenda details can be found here
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