Statement of John H. Anttonen, Project Manager, Basalt Waste Isolation Project, Richland Operations Office, Department of Energy

My name is John Anttonen and I am the Project Manager for the Basalt Waste Isolation Project (BWIP) at the Department of Energy Richland Operation Office. The responsibilities of may office are to manage the day-to-day activities of the site suitability investigations of the basalt formations at the Hanford Site, a Department complex that is involved in a variety of national missions, including defense materials production, nuclear energy research, and radioactive waste management. In may prepared comments today I would like to touch upon four specific subject areas relating to the BWIP program and then I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. The topics I will cover are: (1) historical aspects; (2) site specific technical issues and how they will be addressed during site characterization of the basalt site at Hanford; (3) current project status and; (4) institutional interaction. For clarity, I have attached several charts to my statement