Gorton Says Hanford Cuts Skirted Convinces Energy Chairman To Save Funding

A Louisiana senator’s move to slash Hanford spending and cancel a cleanup pact with Washington state is doomed, says Senator Slade Gorton.

The Washington Republican has convinced Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska, the new GOP chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, not to support Democratic Sen. Bennett Johnston’s bill.

Johnston was the committee’s chairman until Republicans took control of the Senate in last fall’s elections. He is now the ranking minority member.

“If he were still chairman, it might have passed,” Gorton told The Spokesman-Review editorial board on Tuesday.

Johnston wants to cancel the Tri-Party pact involving Washington state, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Hanford within 40 years.

Under his bill, DOE would revise health and environmental protection standards for the cleanup and submit a new plan to Congress within two years.

Johnston also wanted to slash as much as 50 percent from Hanford’s $1.6 billion cleanup budget.

“Senator Johnston’s approach is only driven by money,” Gorton said.

“The secretary of energy could just build a fence around the place. If that would happen, it would be a Pyrrhic victory,” he said.

Gorton blamed the federal government for wasting money at Hanford and said he supports a plan to privatize the nuclear cleanup.

“I don’t believe the contractors are at fault,” Gorton said.

Johnston commissioned a lengthy report, released March 14, that blames both DOE and Hanford’s private contractors for massive waste in the $7.5 billion Hanford cleanup.

“There is almost no aspect of the current approach to cleaning up Hanford that can withstand close scrutiny’,” the report concluded.