U.S. spending bill passes with more money for Hanford cleanup. ‘Big step,’ Inslee says

The Hanford nuclear reservation will get about $140 million more for Hanford environmental cleanup for the fiscal year that started in October than was allocated by Congress for the past fiscal year.

The House approved the Hanford budget appropriation Friday as part of a $1.7 trillion spending package for fiscal 2023 that was approved by the Senate on Thursday. It now goes to President Biden for his signature.

“It’s a big step toward getting the resources we need to finish the cleanup safely, effectively and efficiently,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee posted on Twitter. “There’s more work ahead, but this is a huge win for Washington state.”

The increase will put the budget just above the nearly $2.7 billion appropriation for fiscal 2022.

“Overall we are pleased with the funding numbers for Hanford, and believe they will support continued progress on the highest priority cleanup work for the remainder of the fiscal year,” said David Reeploeg, vice president of federal programs for the Tri-Cities Development Council (TRIDEC).

He called out Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., for working hard to ensure there is adequate funding for Hanford cleanup every year.

This year the Biden administration initially proposed a spending cut of $172 million for Hanford. But in an unprecedented step the administration revised its budget request for the Hanford nuclear reservation to add $191 million to its request and credited Murray with convincing the White House to increase its request.

Hanford has been continuing environmental cleanup work using fiscal year 2022 spending levels after the current fiscal year began with no budget appropriated by Congress.

With a budget appropriation now expected to be signed by Biden for fiscal 2023, attention is turning to the fiscal 2024 budget for Hanford. A spending proposal could be released by the Biden administration as soon as February.

Fiscal 2024 Hanford budget

Significant additional money will be needed in fiscal 2024 as the ongoing work at Hanford will ramp up on the design, engineering and construction of the High Level Waste facility at Hanford, Reeploeg said.

The Department of Energy could be operating the Low Level Waste facility as soon as the end of December 2023 to treat the least radioactive of 56 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks.

But it also faces a deadline to start treating the high level waste in the tanks by 2033.

The Hanford site adjacent to Richland in Eastern Washington was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

The work left the 580-square-mile site with large amounts of radioactive and other hazardous chemical waste and contaminated buildings, soil and groundwater.

Since Biden took the unusual step of amending his fiscal 2023 request for Hanford after submitting it to Congress, TRIDEC is hopeful that the fiscal 2024 request will reflect funding needs, Reeploeg said.

The Washington state Department of Ecology, a Hanford site regulator, has pointed out that the newly approved budget would need to be nearly $3.4 billion to meet legally required work under the Tri-Party Agreement and a federal court consent decree.

For fiscal 2024 nearly $3.8 billion will be needed to meet legal cleanup obligations, according to Ecology.

Newhouse votes no

Newhouse pushed for higher Hanford spending during the regular budget process for the fiscal 2023 budget.

But he voted against the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill on Friday.

Not only did it have money for Hanford cleanup, but also other Central and Eastern Washington priorities such as agriculture research and water issues.

However, Newhouse said the Democrats inserted “poison pills” when the worked on the omnibus spending bill behind closed doors and then failed to give House members time to review the 4,000-plus page bill.

He called the bill “bloated” and said he could not vote for it in good conscience.

“Ultimately, this bill will only make our inflationary crisis worse, doing far more harm than good for the people of Central Washington, which is why I was a strong ‘no’,” he said.

Inslee posted that finishing the Hanford cleanup will protect “our farmers, fish and communities, and can unlock a clean energy renaissance in the Tri-Cities.”

This story was originally published December 23, 2022 at 1:46 PM with the headline "U.S. spending bill passes with more money for Hanford cleanup. ‘Big step,’ Inslee says."