Department of Energy's Initial Efforts To Implement the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982

GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) efforts to implement the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in the areas of: (1) identifying waste disposal sites; (2) financing the waste disposal program through user fees; and (3) establishing an organization to carry out the program.

GAO found that DOE met its statutory milestones for notifying the affected states that it identified repository locations for further evaluation. In addition, it completed the final rulemaking action to incorporate siting guidelines into the Code of Federal Regulations. However, DOE does not expect to meet the statutory deadline dates for key decisions in the siting of the first repository because of complexities encountered in preparing required environmental evaluations and testing delays. DOE estimates that the total program costs over the next 50 years will be more than $20 billion; however, DOE plans for users of the sites to pay the costs. DOE established payment procedures for collecting ongoing and one-time fees from the users of the repositories, and had entered into 70 user contracts by June 1983. Ongoing user fees are expected to be the major long-term source of program revenue. However, DOE has not yet established fees for the reprocessed high-level wastes produced by defense programs and a demonstration program maintained by New York. GAO found that DOE may be able to accelerate millions of dollars in payments from anticipated users of its waste disposal services by accelerating payment periods and raising interest rates. Finally, GAO found that DOE activated the headquarters office for the program, but the new office lacked direct authority to control the field staffs executing the program.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Keith O. Fultz Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 512-3678