EM has requested a fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget of $7.64 billion, an amount that will enable the program to continue making strong, steady and sustained progress on priorities to clean up legacy nuclear sites now and in the years ahead.
Office of Environmental Management
April 26, 2022
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EM has requested a fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget of $7.64 billion, an amount that will enable the program to continue making strong, steady and sustained progress on priorities to clean up legacy nuclear sites now and in the years ahead.
The budget proposal reflects a firm commitment to support remediation activities in communities that historically supported or continue to support nuclear weapons programs and government-sponsored nuclear research. It positions EM for continuing success.
“The FY 2023 budget request proposes key investments that will continue to drive risk reduction and skyline changes across the EM complex, as well as keep the program on track to achieve a step change in how we tackle radioactive tank waste,” EM Senior Advisor William “Ike” White said.
EM’s request builds on past investments, including:
- Advancing startup and commissioning of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) liquid waste treatment system at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
- Infrastructure improvements at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
- Continuing demolition of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York.
- Shipping another 1.2 million tons of uranium mill tailings from the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in Utah for disposal away from the Colorado River.
- Cleaning up excess facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex.
While progress continues at field sites, the budget request also will support programs that seek to build a talent pipeline to replenish a federal workforce in which more than half will be eligible for retirement in the next decade.
Funding also will support underrepresented communities near EM sites across the country. It will increase engagement and opportunity by expanding the Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program and create the consortium — Minority Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), cybersecurity, and manufacturing — that will build sustainable diversity and inclusion that invests in the workforce today and into the future.
“The request will enable us to further advance the EM mission, maintain national security priorities and support those most impacted by the environmental legacy of the past,” White said.
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