Energy Secretary nominee ranks Hanford cleanup as his ‘top priority.’ And he praised PNNL

Nov. 15--The next energy secretary could be making frequent trips to the Hanford nuclear reservation.

Dan Brouillette, the energy secretary nominee, said Hanford environmental cleanup is a top priority for him as he was questioned Thursday morning during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing.

"It ranks right at the top of my prioirty list, and should I be confirmed as secretary, I will be there quite often," he told Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a senior member of the committee.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland and the proposed privatization of the Bonneville Power Administration also came up in the hearing.

Current Energy Secretary Rick Perry plans to depart Dec. 1, and committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski would like a seamless transition, she said.

Brouillette is familiar with Hanford and the other issues that senators grilled him about Thursday after serving as DOE deputy secretary for the last two years under Perry.

He also was assistant secretary of energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs from 2001 to 2003.

His private sector experience includes working as senior vice president and head of public policy for USAA, a financial services provider to the military community, and as a vice president of Ford Motor Co.

Brouillette: Hanford top priority

Cantwell asked him if he remembered what he told her his highest priorities were when he met with her two years ago, and he did not hesitate as he answered cybersecurity and Hanford.

Brouillette had already mentioned Hanford in his opening remarks Thursday, pointing out that the last of the highly radioactive sludge had been removed from Hanford's K Basins to storage safely away from the Columbia River in September.

"That's not the end of the story, however, for Hanford," he told Cantwell later in the hearing. "We have much more to do."

The latest cost estimate for Hanford released early this year said a minimum of $323 billion would be needed to finish Hanford cleanup and the cost could be as high as $677 million.

The report put the earliest possible date for completion of Hanford cleanup at 2066.

Hanford in Eastern Washington near Richland is contaminated from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.

"I am working closely with the contractors there," Brouillette said. "We are bringing, I hope, some business discipline to some of their operations so we can speed up some of the cleanup efforts."

He does not plan to change course on environmental cleanup.

Stay the course at Hanford

He said Cantwell had pointed out to him two years ago, correctly, that when a new administration comes in programs change.

"In other words, we move the ship to the right or to the left, and we do a 180 and things slow down and nothing gets done and cleanups do not happen on time," he said during the hearing.

"We have chosen not to do that," he told Cantwell. "And it's largely at your advice and largely at your direction."

DOE will continue the focus at Hanford for starting to treat the least radioactive tank waste -- low activity waste -- at the $17 billion vitrification plant.

DOE faces a federal court-enforced consent decree deadline to start treating waste by the end of 2023.

Brouillette said he thought the project was on schedule "for around 2023" to begin operations.

Construction started on the Hanford vitrification plant in 2002 to treat much of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste held in underground tanks at the site, some since WWII.

After technical issues related to handling high level radioactive waste were raised, DOE changed course and made plans to start up the vitrification plant in the center of the site in phases, starting with glassification of low activity waste to prepare it for disposal.

DOE needs to get that initial treatment right, Brouillette said.

"Let's do something," he said. "Let's get something started and show that it works so we can get to high level waste and do other things that need to be done in this very complex facility that we have."

Cantwell said that Brouillette's commitment to Hanford cleanup is good news for the Northwest and the nation.

The nation tends to forget Hanford's important role in national security and now "cleanup responsibilities are just as dire and challenging," she said.

BPA privatization

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., another member of the committee, said Brouillette had told him in a recent meeting that he would not support privatization of the Bonneville Power Administration.

Privatization would "hit the Pacific Northwest like a wrecking ball," Wyden said.

The Trump administration has previously proposed selling off the transmission system that Northwest ratepayers have paid for though the BPA.

Wyden also pressed Brouillette about whether he had any involvement or previous direct knowledge of efforts to change the board of the Ukraine's national oil and gas company.

Brouillette said he did not.

"I have not been involved in any of the conversations that are related to the House inquiry," he said, referring to the House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

Praise for PNNL

Brouillette praised DOE's national laboratory system, which includes the national lab in Richland, during his opening statement at the confirmation hearing.

The 17 laboratories play a central role in advancing America's leadership in scientific research and development, energy technology and nuclear security, he said.

Later in the hearing he said he would like to move some current research toward more basic science.

It could include looking for the next generation of solar panels and wind technology and longer-term battery energy storage.

Brouillette called out PNNL's proposed new grid storage research facility, saying it will be "a fantastic opportunity to develop technologies that will be grid scale, not just the smaller batteries you see in people's homes."

PNNL was picked in August as the site of a new national grid research facility to help modernize the nation's utility grid to make it more resilient, secure, reliant and flexible.

Affordable energy storage could help ensure that electricity supplies can recover rapidly if there are malicious attempts to tamper with the grid or if severe weather or natural disasters take down parts of the grid.

The Trump administration requested that Congress approve $5 million for planning and design work to get the project started in fiscal 2020, but Congress has yet to approve the budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

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