The entire Washington congressional delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, have called on President Biden to do his part to get more money for the Hanford nuclear reservation site.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., led the effort to send a letter Thursday to the president. It points out the progress toward starting to treat and dispose of some of the least radioactive of 56 million gallons of waste stored in underground tanks, many of them prone to leaking.

Murray carries clout on the issue as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Newhouse, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, has advocated for strong Hanford budgets since taking office in 2015.

Now DOE needs more money to also work toward treating the most radioactive tank waste by proceeding with the engineering and construction of the High Level Waste Facility at the Hanford vitrification plant, the letter said.

“This is a top priority for our constituents, the state of Washington, the communities surrounding DOE’s Hanford site and regional tribes,” the Washington delegation said.

Lawmakers also said they were encouraged by collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology to reach agreement on a plan to address leaks from the oldest of the radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford site adjoining Richland in Eastern Washington.

Hanford has been operating under a continuing resolution after Congress has not approved a Department of Energy appropriations bill weeks after the Oct. 1 start of the current fiscal year. Hanford continues to receive the $2.6 billion for operations and maintenance as approved for the past fiscal year, which was then a record high. With additional money set aside by Congress for security at Hanford, the total is higher at about $2.7 billion

For this fiscal year the Biden administration in March had proposed a $172 million cut to Hanford spending for the fiscal year that started this month.

But in an unprecedented step the administration revised its budget request for the Hanford nuclear reservation to add $191 billion to its request.

Murray had repeatedly urged in public and private conversations with the administration that the federal government fully fund environmental cleanup of the 580-square-mile site in Eastern Washington. 

Murray said in a statement Thursday that it is her job to make sure the administration lives up to its legal and moral obligation to clean up the Hanford site, including the next critical phase of environmental remediation. 

“... I’ll keep working across the aisle to deliver the resources we need at Hanford,” she said.

HANFORD WORK TO INCREASE IN 2024 

Hanford has untreated radioactive and hazardous chemical waste, plus contaminated soil, groundwater and buildings, from the past production of nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program. 

The Biden administration is currently considering its budget request for fiscal 2024, which could be made public in the late winter or early spring. It provides a starting point for Congress, with input from the Washington congressional delegation to approve funding levels for the year.

Hanford has begun preparing low-activity tank waste to be sent to the vitrification plant’s Low Activity Waste Plant for treatment that could start as soon as the end of next year, the letter from the Washington congressional delegation pointed out.

In fiscal 2024 DOE will also need to ramp up design, engineering and construction of the vitrification plant’s High Level Waste Facility, the letter said. Construction on the plant has been largely stopped since technical issues were raised in 2012 concerning how the plant handles the most radioactive components in the waste.

It is imperative that the Hanford budget request reflects not only the increased work at the vitrification plant, but also continued work on other environmental cleanup of Hanford in fiscal 2024 and subsequent years, the letter said.

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