Nuclear Waste

DOE Should Base Disposal Fee Assessment on Realistic Inflation Rate Gao ID: RCED-88-129 July 22, 1988

GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) annual assessment of the nuclear waste disposal program fee, focusing on DOE treatment of inflation in assessing fee adequacy.

GAO found that: (1) in June 1987, DOE recommended that the disposal fee remain unchanged, even though its analysis showed that, at a 4-percent inflation rate, the current fee would result in end-of-program deficits of $21 billion to $76 billion; (2) DOE should have proposed a fee increase to Congress, based on the inflation rate, to ensure that revenues would cover program costs; and (3) future program changes and reduced costs should enable DOE to begin using a realistic inflation rate in determining fee adequacy in 1988.

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.

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