Congress will have a better idea next year on ways to set aside money for treating Hanford's tank wastes, said U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt.

Nethercutt, R-Wash., on Tuesday visited Hanford for the first time since he has been in Congress.

Hanford plans to turn 54 million gallons of radioactive wastes in its underground tanks into glass.

Two corporate teams are supposed to submit plans in January on how they will build plants to begin converting some of those wastes into glass beginning in 2002.

The Department of Energy is to decide in May whether to accept both, one or neither plan.

The plan - dubbed "privatization" in Hanford jargon - calls for DOE not to pay either team until they produce glass logs. Then the bills will come, totaling as much as $4 billion from 2002 to 2007.

Congress has been reluctant to set aside money in advance, citing squeamishness about DOE's track record, especially with cost overruns on a project operating under a similar funding scheme at Idaho Falls.

Congress has approved less than half of what DOE requested for 1997 and 1998 to put into the reserve that eventually will pay for Hanford's tank wastes.

Nethercutt likes privatization and noted smaller allocations now could lead to bigger bill-paying obligations later. "I hate to see us get hit with a huge bill later," he said.

But he noted Hanford's privatization plans have not scored high with a Congress facing many competing budget requests.

One reason is Congress has "operated in a vacuum" on what the proposal will need, he said. The two corporate teams have yet to submit their financial figures.

When budget debates begin in 1998, Congress will have more solid figures on privatization, Nethercutt said. "They'll know more and can make better judgments," he said.