The US Office of Environmental Management (EM), part of the Department of Energy, has sought less funding in 2025 than in the past two years, after some large projects came to an end.
EM was established in 1989 to clean up liquid radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel and other nuclear materials, as well as disposing of large volumes of lower-level wastes and managing contaminated soil and water. It also has to deactivate and decommission thousands of facilities that are now surplus to requirements. It is currently working at 15 sites in 11 states including some of the most challenging sites in the US.
The Savannah River site had funding of over $1.8bn in FY 2023 and 2024. In 2025, the DOE has requested $1.6bn, down by 10.6%. That is largely due to changes in pension payments and site administrative activities being re-badged into the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Funding will support optimisation of the site’s high level waste vitrification programme (part of the Liquid Waste Program, LWP) and disposition of decontaminated salt solution in Saltstone Disposal Units. EM aims to complete the overall LWP by 2037.
The LWP will start processing higher curie salt feed batches through the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) and then implementing use of a ‘Next Generation Solvent’, to remove more caesium, to increase throughput.
The SWPF receives radioactive salt from more than 33 million gallons (124,918 m3) of waste remaining in the 43 waste tanks in the site’s two radioactive ‘tank farms’. In November 2024 the site achieved a milestone when it reached more than 10 million gallons (37,854 m3) of liquid waste processed through the SWPF. That came on the fourth anniversary of the start of SWPF “hot commissioning” testing.
The highly radioactive waste stream is sent for vitrification, while the decontaminated salt solution is sent to the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF). SWPF and End Stream Delivery Project Director Steve Howell said “The Salt Waste Processing Facility is operating more efficiently than before”.
The site now plans to close three tanks (9, 10, and 11) that are below the water table.
Funding for the programme is also supplied via the Department of River Protection which has asked for a $271m (15.6%) increase in funding to around $2bn in 2025. The increase includes the costs of beginning of hot commissioning and ramp up of capability for a direct-feed low-activity waste strategy.
The Department of River Protection is also partly responsible for funding cleanup at the Hanford site, alongside Richland’s FY 2025 request. Richland manages all cleanup activities at Hanford not managed by the Office of River Protection.
At this site the Low-Activity Waste Facility recently completed the final test of key safety systems, including coping with a loss of power. “This was the ultimate test to demonstrate that the emissions treatment system can respond to this worst-case scenario,” said Mat Irwin, Hanford acting assistant manager for the WTP Project. “The test was true to life, and the plant responded exactly as it would during full operations.” The completion of this test means the Low-Activity Waste Facility emissions treatment system is now ready for the next stages of operation.
The budget request also supports modifications to the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility for transfer of the caesium-strontium capsules to dry storage by August 2025.
Oak Ridge has requested an additional $21bn, up 3.2% on the £637bn it received in 2023. That covers continuing cleanup activities at the Oak Ridge site, addressing high-risk excess contaminated facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and design for the On-Site Waste Disposal Facility. The increase also supports continued progress on cleanup of contaminated facilities, the Mercury Construction Project and processing of transuranic debris waste and are offset by the ramp-down of cleanup activities at East Tennessee Technology Park.
The Carlsbad Field Office is responsible for managing the National Transuranic Waste Program and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a repository for the permanent geologic disposal of defence-generated transuranic waste. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant FY 2025 request supports disposal facility operations, regulatory and environmental compliance actions, the Central Characterization Project to perform transuranic waste characterisation/certification activities to maintain progress toward legacy transuranic waste related milestones at generator sites, transuranic waste transportation capabilities, continued progress on repairing or replacing infrastructure, and modernising underground equipment to zero-emission battery-electric vehicle-powered equipment. Two significant reductions from the FY2023 funding are in the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) and the completion of work on a 26ft (8 m) diameter Utility Shaft, which provides for the SSCVS air intake.
In June 2024 EM announced the completion of construction at the SSCVS, and a move into a testing and commissioning phase that is due to deliver the facility online and operational in 2026. “Finishing the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System construction phase marks a momentous investment in WIPP’s operational infrastructure,” said Mark Bollinger, EM’s Carlsbad Field Office manager. “When fully online, the SSCVS will greatly increase the quality of airflow to the underground repository and enhance WIPP’s ability to reliably deliver on DOE’s national security and environmental cleanup missions.”
The Idaho National Laboratory received $472m in FY2023 and its request for 2025 is down just 0.1%.
The reduction reflects the completion of wet to dry spent fuel transfers, transition from waste treatment operations to closure activities, progress in decontamination and demolition of the Accelerated Retrieval Project facilities and an anticipated reduction in costs once transition to Integrated Waste Treatment Unit operations is complete. The decrease is offset by increased funding to support construction activities for the Subsurface Disposal Area Cap and support for continued design efforts for a Spent Nuclear Fuel Staging Facility.
Many activities are ongoing on the site, but the year should also see completion of Peach Bottom fuel transfers. At the start of 2025, the Office of Environmental Management announced that it had completed the majority of its 2024 priorities, including meeting significant construction milestones, executing key cleanup projects, reducing its operational footprint, and awarding contracts.
