President Trump has proposed cutting the funding for cleaning up the radioactive waste at Hanford by $400 million, and the House Appropriations Committee proposed even bigger cuts. Washington’s senior U.S. Senator Patty Murray long fought for “a budget that lives up to the federal government’s moral and legal obligation” to clean up decades of highly radioactive waste.

Although Hanford got a record $3.2 billion for the current fiscal year, the Washington State Ecology Department said the actual amount needed to fully fund the cleanup is $6.15 billion, and that $6.76 billion will be needed for 2027. We talk with Murray about Hanford and how Congressional budget negotiations are going.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/09/17/think-out-loud-hanford-cleanup-radioactive-waste-washington/