Congress Debates Major Cuts To Hanford Nuclear Waste Funding

Back in 1943, what we now call the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was part of the Manhattan Project and was sometimes referred to as Hanford Engineer Works. At the time, nobody was worried about nuclear waste. As a nation, we were consumed with winning World War 2. 

83 years later when we think of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, we think of the massively expensive cost of cleaning up nuclear waste in our back yard with a budget of almost $3.2 billion. 

A few weeks ago, President Trump proposed about a $400 million reduction in that budget and now this week Congress wants to reduce it even more. 

According to seattletimes.com,
‘The House proposes an additional cut of about $55 million for a total budget of just under $2.8 billion for the coming fiscal year.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in a visit to the Tri-Cities earlier this month, said finding money will be more difficult for Congress due to pressure to increase military spending.
Layoffs are possible; she and union leaders warned. 

One difference in the house budget is that there's a proposal to move some of that nuclear waste from Hanford to New Mexico (Something that hasn't happened in the last 10 years.) costing about $25 million. New Mexico, on the other hand, is saying no, not until we take care of our own nuclear waste program at The Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

The House also wants additional cuts to the Hanford vitrification Plant High Level Waste Facility Construction Budget. The administration is proposing to cut that budget from $618 million To $330 million. The House proposes to cut it down to $250 million.  

So why are these cuts being proposed? 

Popular thinking is that these budget cuts are being proposed so that next year's defense budget can be boosted by about $500 million. 

None of these cuts are set in stone yet. We will just have to wait and see what happens.