Spending bill will benefit state, SRS [Aiken Standard, S.C.]

Dec. 20--Provisions contained in the more than $1 trillion spending bill that passed Congress and was signed by President Obama this weekend is expected to have positive implications for South Carolina and the Savannah River Site, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Monday.

The budget allocates a total of $1.19 billion to the Savannah River Site for cleanup and other missions and $452.573 million for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication facility, as well as specific provisions for the future of H-Canyon.

"In a very lean budget year, where you're having to make tough decisions, the Environmental Management funds were kept stable and will allow us to have the funding that the (Savannah River Site) needs to continue our cleanup programs," Graham said. "The big takeaways from this year at SRS is that H-Canyon is going to remain viable and is going to be used in new and creative ways, that the EM budget in the appropriations bill allows the Site to maintain the project that we're already involved in and that hydrogen research from a national standpoint has survived."

The language of the spending bill states that the Department of Energy will conduct its own review to consider the "full range of potential uses for the chemical processing areas of H-Canyon ..." and report back to the House and Senate appropriations committees within three months.

In early 2011, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions was given a directive to put H-Canyon, the nation's only hardened nuclear chemical separations plant in operation, into minimum activity status.

It was later announced that H-Canyon would begin producing feedstock for the MOX facility in fiscal year 2012.

In the bill, $685,386,000 is provided for Fissile Materials Disposition at the MOX facility but provides no funding for the Pit Disassembly and Conversion project.

The use of $20,500,000 in prior-year uncommitted balances within U.S. Plutonium Disposition, in part to prepare plutonium feedstock at H-Canyon, was also in the bill.

"All in all, in a lean budget year, Savannah River Site infrastructure was preserved and, in some instances, enhanced," Graham said. "From my point of view, shutting the government down was not acceptable, and, hopefully next year, we will do the appropriations process in a normal order."

Graham said that protecting the opportunity for research and development at H-Canyon and making sure funding is in place for South Carolina infrastructure that could cause an economic boom for the state is imperative.

"The future in South Carolina is energy development. If we play our cards smart, South Carolina will be on the leading edge of the (nuclear) renaissance," Graham said.

From the Department of energy budget:

Savannah River Site total: $1.193 billion

-- Cleanup and waste disposition -- Savannah River community and regulatory support: $9.584 million

-- Site Risk Management Operations: $343.586 million

-- Radioactive liquid tank waste stabilization and disposition: $667.081 million

-- PE&D Glass waste storage building $3: $3.5 million

-- Salt Waste Processing Facility: $170.071 million

MOX total: $452.574 million

-- MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility: $435.172 million

-- Waste solidification building: $17.582 million

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(c)2011 the Aiken Standard (Aiken, S.C.)

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