Senator Murray on Trump Administration Threatening Nuclear Waste Cleanup Efforts at Hanford Site in WA

ICYMI: Senator Murray, Longtime PNNL and Hanford Leaders Discuss How Republican Budget Cuts Would Be Devastating for PNNL, Hanford, and LIGO

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement in response to new reporting in E&E that the Trump administration abruptly fired Roger Jarrell-principal deputy assistant secretary of Environmental Management (EM), the office that oversees nuclear cleanup operations at the Hanford site in Washington state-for reasons related to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright's desire to go in a 'different direction' on the Hanford cleanup.

According to the reporting, DOE leadership is interested in axing the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant Project at the Hanford Site altogether-which has been in the works for decades and is the world's largest and most technically sophisticated radioactive waste treatment plant-despite the fact that it has already been built and is slated to begin hot commissioning next month. Trump has nominated Tim Walsh to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management at DOE.

"I sincerely hope that the reports I've read are incorrect, but I have absolutely no intention of allowing the Trump administration to upend nuclear waste cleanup at Hanford and threaten progress at the Waste Treatment Plant. Hanford is the largest nuclear cleanup site in our country; it is not only dangerous, but it is more costly in the long run to try to do nuclear waste cleanup on the cheap. We are so close to turning nuclear waste into glass at Hanford, with the Waste Treatment Plant literally slated for hot commissioning next month-I will not stand by and let the Trump administration kneecap the Hanford cleanup mission and violate the legally-binding Holistic Agreement because they are ignorant and corrupt.

"This is a catastrophic threat to the Hanford cleanup mission and the Tri-Cities community and would light billions of taxpayer dollars on fire. This administration has shown itself to be dangerously clueless about Hanford and clearly won't think twice about tearing up the painstaking progress we've made over decades to clean up toxic nuclear waste-for those reasons I will be voting against Tim Walsh, Trump's nominee to oversee Hanford.

"I will always do everything in my power to make sure the Trump administration-and every administration-meets its moral and legal commitments to Hanford and the workers powering the cleanup."

Last month, Senator Murray held a press conference in the Tri-Cities in Washington state to speak about how the Trump administration's proposed budget cuts, along with the cuts proposed by House Republicans, to the Department of Energy (DOE) and other critical agencies would be disastrous for the Hanford cleanup mission and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

President Trump's budget request, as well as the funding bill drafted by House Republicans, would be devastating for Hanford and PNNL if enacted. The House Republican Energy and Water funding bill proposes hundreds of millions in cuts to the Hanford cleanup mission, cutting $779 million from the DOE's environmental management which work which supports nuclear cleanup at 15 sites across the country, including Hanford.