EM's fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget request of $7.64 billion reflects the strong commitment to clean up the environment in communities that historically supported or continue to support nuclear weapons programs and government-sponsored nuclear research.
The request positions EM for a new era of steady and sustained achievement. The budget will further ramp up work to tackle the challenge of radioactive waste in underground storage tanks, as well as continue to drive risk reduction and skyline changes across all EM sites.
“The FY 2023 budget request demonstrates strong support for EM’s ongoing cleanup mission and ensuring the communities surrounding our sites are safe, and that the families in those communities can thrive,” said EM Senior Advisor William “Ike” White.
The FY 2023 budget request will provide the resources necessary to continue progress in key areas including:
- Full operations of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
- Cleanup and risk reduction activities at the Hanford Site in Washington state, including advancing startup and commissioning of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) system.
- Infrastructure improvements at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and allowing for an increase in shipments to the New Mexico repository to 17 a week.
- Anticipated startup operations at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the DOE Idaho National Laboratory Site.
- Removal of another 1.2 million tons of uranium mill tailings away from the Colorado River at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in Utah.
- Demolition of Building X-326, the first of three massive former gaseous diffusion plants that will be taken down at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
- Advancing deactivation of the C-333 process building at the Paducah Site in Kentucky.
- Demolition of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York.
- The consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and EM’s Minority Serving Institutions to continue building a diverse and inclusive next-generation workforce.
- The Community Capacity Building program, which is designed to help disadvantaged communities adjacent to EM sites where there is a substantial portion of the population living below the poverty level.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Todd Shrader said the EM budget request is key to advancing key environmental cleanup priorities.
“This budget request prioritizes and reduces risk by addressing the challenges of treating radioactive waste stored in underground tanks, demolition of excess buildings, remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater, the safe management and disposal of waste, and advancement of efforts to ultimately close out cleanup sites,” he said.
More information on the FY 2023 budget request is available here.
Original source can be found here.
