(The Center Square) – The $1.7 trillion spending package passed by Congress included $140 million of additional funds for cleanup work at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
That addition puts Hanford’s cleanup budget just above the nearly $2.7 billion appropriated for fiscal year 2022, and has earned praise from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.
“It’s a big step toward getting the resources we need to finish the cleanup safely, effectively and efficiently,” he posted on Twitter. “There’s more work ahead, but this is a huge win for Washington state.”
Inslee posted that finishing the Hanford work will protect “our farmers, fish and communities and can unlock a clean energy renaissance in the Tri-Cities.”
The Washington state Department of Ecology, a Hanford site regulator, contends $3.4 billion is needed to meet legally required work in 2023.
The omnibus spending bill to keep military and federal government programs funded through September 2023 passed mostly along party lines last week in the House, 225 to 201. One of the nine Republicans who broke ranks to vote for the legislation was Jaime Herrera Beutler, a member of Washington’s congressional delegation who will not be returning to Congress after losing in the Republican primary in August.
The House vote to approve the spending bill followed a supportive 68-29 vote in the Senate. Eighteen Republicans from the Senate supported the bill.
U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell were among Washington’s Democratic leaders who voted for the spending package. In opposition were U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse, both Republicans representing the east side of the state.
Although the Biden administration had initially proposed a $172 million spending cut for Hanford work, Murray is credited with convincing the White House to add $191 million to its request.
Congress and the administration have been advised by U.S. Department of Energy officials that more money will be needed in fiscal 2024. By that time, treatment of 56 million gallons of the least radioactive waste stored in underground tanks will be underway.
Treating high level waste in the tanks is mandated to begin by 2033.
The Hanford site was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium supply needed for the nation’s nuclear weapons program. The work left the 580-square-mile federal property in Eastern Washington with large amounts of radioactive and other hazardous chemical waste, as well as contaminated buildings, soil and groundwater.
Washington’s congressional delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, have called on President Joe Biden to do his part to get more money for cleanup work at Hanford.
Murray and Newhouse have long led Washington delegation’s efforts to obtain more funding for the major environmental project.
“This is a top priority for our constituents, the state of Washington, the communities surrounding DOE’s Hanford site and regional tribes,” they wrote in a letter to Biden this fall.
