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By John Fleck
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Friday, 16 January 2009 09:42 |
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 A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators, including Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, are pushing for increased spending on environmental cleanup at places like Los Alamos National Laboratory and waste disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant as part of the stimulus package.
A letter they sent to appropriations chair Daniel Inouye argues that the cleanup projects, because contracts are already in place, project planning has been done, etc., are a perfect fit for the sort of "shovel-ready" projects that are needed. They're talking about $6 billion and 10,000 jobs nationwide. (No breakdown yet of how many jobs are where within that number. I suspect no one really knows, and like most of these stimulus numbers, it was just sorta pulled out of thin air, but I'll add to this post if/when I get something more concrete.)Los Alamos gets a little more than $150 million a year for cleanup. WIPP's budget is just above $200 million. (Updated to clarify that money at WIPP would go to disposal of waste being cleaned up elsewhere.) (Picture: Radioactive waste truck shipment, courtesy WIPP project.)
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 January 2009 11:38 )
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