News Release

Department of Ecology News Release - Oct. 20, 2000

00-210

New Hanford budget will keep cleanup on track

OLYMPIA – Cleanup efforts at Hanford will receive a major boost during the coming year, thanks to the new energy and water bill approved yesterday by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill, which is now on the way to the President's desk, provides $1.6 billion to clean up nuclear wastes at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., in fiscal year 2001. It is the highest budget ever approved for Hanford cleanup projects.

"Cleaning up Hanford is one of the highest priorities for our state, and it's great to see Congress recognizing what we have long known," said Gov. Gary Locke.

Among other things, the bill provides:

$758 million for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of River Protection for maintaining and emptying underground tanks that store 53 million gallons of high-level nuclear waste. This amount includes $377 million to finish designing a treatment complex to turn the tank wastes into glass.
$755 million for other cleanup projects being managed by the Department of Energy (USDOE) at the Hanford site
$96 million for other Hanford programs, including the salaries of 500 USDOE staff in Richland and Washington, D.C.

The money is contained in a $23.6 billion energy and water bill that President Clinton has indicated he will sign.

Locke said he was particularly pleased with the sizeable appropriation to continue developing a vitrification treatment complex that eventually will stabilize the wastes contained in 177 aging storage tanks. Many of the tanks have leaked, and officials fear others will, too, unless the waste is removed soon.

Last spring, USDOE canceled its contract with British Nuclear Fuel Laboratories, the company slated to design and build a vitrification treatment facility at Hanford. Locke, Attorney General Christine Gregoire and officials with the state Department of Ecology quickly arranged a meeting with Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to seek his commitment to getting the project back on track and keeping it on schedule.

After lengthy negotiations throughout the summer and early fall, the officials agreed to a new date for issuing a contract to a new company; the agreement is now being filed in federal court as a consent decree. The agreement results in a delay of only a few months, rather than the multiple years the state had feared.

"We've had to fight for every inch of progress on the Hanford cleanup, including getting adequate funding," said Ecology Director Tom Fitzsimmons. "This new budget should eliminate a lot of excuses for not making progress."

Contact: Sheryl Hutchison, Communication Director, 360-407-7004