The Department of Energy plans to focus on cleanup projects that reduce risk while meeting as many legal requirements as possible with limited money next year, Jim Rispoli, assistant secretary for environmental management, said Wednesday.

Rispoli, who heads DOE's program for cleanup of Hanford and other nuclear weapon sites, spoke to the Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board at its meeting in Richland on Wednesday and plans a tour of Hanford today. The advisory board is made up of the leaders of advisory boards for DOE sites across the nation, including the Hanford Advisory Board.

DOE has acknowledged the Bush administration's budget request for cleanup in fiscal year 2009 will not meet all legal deadlines, Rispoli said. At Hanford, DOE could miss 18 Tri-Party Agreement deadlines over the next two years.

DOE will give top priority to projects that treat radioactive liquid waste, including the 53 million gallons of radioactive waste held in Hanford's underground tanks, Rispoli said.

Its next priority will be consolidating and disposing of nuclear materials, including weapons-grade plutonium. Shipments of plutonium left at Hanford after the Cold War have begun heading to Savannah River, S.C.

Those priorities are followed by disposing of transuranic waste -- typically debris contaminated with plutonium -- and low-level waste; cleanup of contaminated soil and ground water; and decontamination of unneeded buildings and plants.

However, that list has exceptions, Rispoli said. DOE is proposing increasing spending on cleanup of ground water and contaminated soil by $65 million at Hanford in fiscal year 2009.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman wants to make sure DOE no longer makes commitments to deadlines DOE cannot meet, Rispoli said. The agency has completed an audited assessment of the cost and schedule for cleanup projects nationwide that will allow more confidence as DOE continues to negotiate cleanup agreements, he said.

Some of DOE's problems meeting deadlines have been caused by incomplete knowledge of the complexity of projects, inconsistent performance, overly optimistic assumptions and technical problems, he said.

He stressed the difficulty of cleanup, saying much of the work is first-of-a-kind. Now Russia and Great Britain are looking to the United States as they start cleanup, he said.

Projects have had difficulties that cause long shutdowns, he said. Although he did not name specific projects, no waste has been retrieved from Hanford's leak-prone underground tanks since a spill during retrieval in late July.

"The reason things happen is it is very, very complex work, very hazardous work," he said.

The cleanup sites have more than 80 million gallons of radioactive tank waste that must be treated, but it varies from site to site and tank to tank. At Hanford, 11 technologies for retrieving the waste from underground tanks had to be developed to help empty the first seven of 149 tanks, he said.

Rispoli praised progress to prepare the Hanford K Basins for demolition, which has included work to vacuum radioactive sludge from the bottom of 20-foot-deep pools with long-handled tools.

"It's like pruning a tree upside-down under water," he said.

But water has been drained from the K East Basin and soon it will be torn down so workers can get to contaminated soil beneath the leak-prone basin.

"The K Basins had appeared to have been the never-ending story, but we seem to have our arms around it," he said.

DOE needs to do a better job of getting news coverage of cleanup accomplishments, he said. If all people hear about is cleanup problems, DOE has a tough time attracting the workers it needs, he said.

The Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board meeting continues from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Richland Red Lion Hanford House. Public comment will be heard from about 11:30 a.m. to noon.