GAO reports say legal disputes and land-use assumptions drive up DOE nuclear cleanup costs
Two federal audits released Oct. 16 look at DOE's estimated $641 billion to $840 billion cleanup of former weapons sites.
WASHINGTON - Unclear law on how far states can regulate radioactive waste, and cleanup plans built on unlikely future land uses, are adding time and cost to the Energy Department's nuclear-weapons cleanup, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Oct. 16.
DOE estimates the remaining cleanup of its sites will cost $641 billion to $840 billion and run until 2100, the GAO said. Experts the GAO convened with the National Academies said some state actions on the radioactive part of DOE waste may go beyond state authority and have led to disputes, longer schedules and billions in added federal costs. The GAO said Congress could reduce disputes by clarifying federal preemption under the Atomic Energy Act and letting DOE appeal state actions to the Environmental Protection Agency. In a poll, all the experts recommended a joint DOE-EPA task force to review major cleanup decisions.
A second GAO report, also released Oct. 16, reviewed future land-use planning at six cleanup sites: Oak Ridge, Paducah, Portsmouth, Savannah River, Hanford and Idaho. It found DOE has transferred or leased small amounts of land for industrial use at five of them.